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Vol.  I  MAY,  1900  No.  i 


Abraham  Lincoln:     The  Evolution  of  his 
Literary  Style 


By 


DANIEL  KILHAM  DODGE,  Ph.  D., 

Professor  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature 


Champaign 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS, 

PRESIDENT'S  OFFICE. 

The  publication  of  The  University  Studies  has  been  provided  for 
b}7  the  Board  of  Trustees  in  order  to  encourage  research  throughout 
the  University  and  to  convey  the  results  thereof  to  those  who  would 
be  interested.  The  publication  is  under  the  direction  of  the 
Council  of  Administration.  All  associated  with  the  University  are 
encouraged  to  submit  material  for  publication.  None  will  be  used 
which  is  not  believed  to  be  a  contribution  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  Numbers  will  be  issued  as  the  offerings  make  advisable.  A 
list  of  preceding  issues  will  be  printed  in  each  number.  The  distri 
bution  will  be  to  other  universities,  to  public  libraries,  and  to  such 
known  friends  of  advanced  learning  as  will  be  likely  to  be  specially 
interested  in  particular  numbers.  The  University  will  gladly  respond 
to  any  request  for  a  specified  number,  so  long  as  it  is  practicable"  to 
do  so.  No  charge  will  be  made  therefor,  but  the  applicant  ma}7  send 
ten  cents  in  stamps  or  otherwise  to  cover  the  expense  of  carriage. 


President. 


of  fllinofe 


' 


VOLUME   ONE 


PUBLISHED    BY   THE    UNIVERSITY 

URBANA,   ILLINOIS 


r\  J  v/ 


1  ^ 

V.  l- 


CONTENTS 


PAGES 

No.    1.  Abraham  Lincoln:    The  Evolution  of  his  Literary 

Style  -      1-  58 

No.    2.  The  Decline  of  the  Commerce  of  the  Port  of  New 

York  -        -    59-  76 

No.    3.  A  Statistical  Study  of  Illinois  High  Schools      -        -    77-135 

No.    4.  The  Genesis  of  the  Grand  Remonstrance  from  Parli 
ament  to  King  Charles  I  -   137-181 

No.    5.  The  Artificial   Method  for  Determining   the   Ease 

and  Kapidity  of  the  Digestion  of  Meats  183-208 

No.    0.  Illinois  railway  Legislation  and  Commission  Con 
trol  since  1870  -   209-289 

No.    7.  The  Coals  of  Illinois ;  Their  Composition  and  Anal 
ysis  -   291-332 

No.    8.  The  Granger  Movement  in  Illinois  -         -   333-385 

,  No.    9.  The  Illinois  Constitutional  Convention  of  1862        -   387-442 

-iNo.  10.  Labor  Organization  Among  Women  -        -   443-521 


of  flltnots 


Vol.  I  MAY,  1900  No. 


Abraham  Lincoln:     The  Evolution  of  his 
Literary  Style 


By 


DANIEL  KILHAM  DODGE,  Ph.  D., 

Professor  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature 


Champaign 


PRINTED     BYTHEGAZETTE 
CHAMPAIGN,    ILLINOIS. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  HIS  LITERARY  STYLE 


At  a  time  when  lives  and  studies  of  Abraham  Lincoln  are 
almost  as  thick  as  leaves  ipa  Vallombrosa,  a  further  contribu 
tion  to  the  subject  would  seem  to  call  for  explanation.  The 
only  apparent  excuse  for  adding  to  the  list  of  Lincolniana  is 
the  ability  to  present  new  facts  or  to  treat  old  facts  in  a  new 
way.  For  the  former,  no  substantial  claim  is  made.  It  is 
hoped,  however,  that  by  bringing  together  the  known  facts  of 
Lincoln's  reading  and  writing  and  by  comparing  the  views  of 
his  contemporaries  as  to  the  intellectual  side  of  his  character, 
it  will  be  possible  to  help  the  present  generation  to  assign  to 
Abraham  Lincoln  his  proper  place  in  the  history  of  our  country. 

In  this  study  of  Lincoln  as  a  writer  the  following  topics 
will  be  discussed.  After  briefly  noting  the  main  facts  of  Lin 
coln's  early  education,  we  shall  pass  on  to  his  reading  and  its 
relation  to  his  taste  and  mental  development,  concluding  this 
part  of  the  subject  by  giving  several  specimens  of  his  expres 
sions  of  critical  opinion  on  Shakspere.  The  consideration  of 
Lincoln's  imagination  and  of  his  interest  in  words  prepares  for 
the  immediate  study  of  his  prose  style.  After  a  brief  survey  of 
the  minor  writings,  the  letters,  poems  and  lectures,  the  speeches 
and  other  public  papers  will  be  taken  up  in  chronological 
order. 

To  the  student  of  Lincoln's  writings  no  single  topic  is  of 
greater  interest  than  the  careful  tracing  out  of  the  culture  of 
that  self-taught  genius.  And  lest  expectation  be  raised  too 

[3] 


high,  it  may  be  stated  at  the  very  outset  that,  while  Herndon's 
claim  is  far  from  true  that  "  He  [Lincoln]  read  less  and  thought 
more  than  any  [other]  man  in  his  sphere  in  America"1,  yet  it  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  no  other  man  in  any  sphere  or  in  any 
country  who  had  read  and  retained  as  much  as  Lincoln,  quoted 
so  little,  f  Although  Lincoln  lived  at  a  time  when  direct  quota 
tions  were  in  far  greater  favor  with  public  speakers  and  writers 
than  they  are  now,  the  approximately  complete  list  of  quota 
tions  occurring  in  his  public  utterances  must  occasion  surprise 
by  reason  of  its  brevity  and  limited  range. 

But  before  considering  the  relation  of  Lincoln's  knoAvledge 
of  literature  to  his  writings  let  us  glance  at  the  beginnings  of 
his  culture.  The  story  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  early  education 
in  Kentucky  and  Indiana  has  been  so  often  told  and  the  differ 
ent  accounts  agree  so  closely,  that  we  need  not  dwell  upon  it 
here.  All  the  important  facts  can  be  obtained  from  Nicolay 
and  Hay's  Life.  \His  schooling  "  amounted  to  less  than  a  year 
in  all."  "  His  last  school  days  were  passed  with  one  Swariey  in 
1826,  when  he  was  seventeen  years  old,  who  taught  at  a  dis 
tance  of  four  and  a  half  miles  from  the  Lincoln  cabin."2  No 
one  was  more  conscious  of  the  shortcomings  of  his  education 
than  Lincoln  himself.  In  the  Dictionary  of  Congress  he  des 
cribes  his  education  as  "  defective,"3  and  in  the  Short  Autobiog 
raphy  he  writes  :  "  He  regrets  his  wrant  of  education,  and  does 
what  he  can  to  supply  the  want."4  A  chief  difficulty  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career  was  the  mastery  of  English  grammar. 
In  1831,  when  he  was  twenty-two  years  old,  he  studied  Kirk- 
ham's  English  Grammar.5  According  to  Nicolay  and  Hay,  "  he 
seemed  surprised  at  the  ....  ease  with  which  it  yielded 
all  there  was  to  it  to  the  student."6  In  the  Autobiography  Lin- 

]Herndon,  593.        2Nicolay  and  Hay,  Life  I.,  34. 

:jlbid.  Works,  I.,  240.  Nicolay  and  Hay's  statement  does  not  seem  to  be  quite 
accurate.  The  article  itself  reads,  "  received" a  limited  education."  The  Dictionary 
of  the  U.  S.  Congress,  edit,  by  Charles  Lanman,  1859. 

4Nicolay  and  Hay,  Works,  L,  640. 

'Ibid.     Life,  I.,  84.     For  an  account  of  the  study  of  grammar,  see  Tarbell,  I.,   66' 
°Nicolay  and  Hay,  Life,  L,  84. 

[4] 


5 

coin  says  :  "  He  studied  grammar — imperfectly,  of  course,  but 
so  as  to  speak  and  write  as  well  as  he  now  does." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  desire  to  improve  himself  received  fresh  im 
petus  from  his  life  in  Washington  while  a  member  of  Congress. 
"  He  began  a  serious  course  of  self-education,  studying  mathe 
matics,  astronomy,  poetry  as  regularly  as  a  school-boy  who 
had  lessons  to  recite.  In  the  winter  of  1849-50  he  even  joined 
a  club  of  a  dozen  gentlemen  of  Springfield  who  had  begun  the 
study  of  German."1  Arnold  states  :  "  He  studied  Euclid,  Alge 
bra,  and  Latin,  when  traveling  the  circuit  as  a  lawyer."2  But 
if  he  studied  Latin,  Mr.  Lincoln  never  mastered  it.  The  only 
other  references  to  the  language  that  were  noted  occur  in  Car 
penter  and  Tarbell.  Commenting  on  a  Latin  quotation  that 
was  made  in  a  conversation  Mr.  Lincoln  said  :  "  which,  I  sup 
pose  you  are  both  aware,  I  do  not  understand."3  Speaking  of 
the  clearness  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  legal  arguments,  Miss  Tarbell 
relates  the  following  anecdote  :  "  A  lawyer  quoting  a  legal 
maxim  one  day  in  court,  turned  to  Lincoln,  and  said  :  t  That's 
so,  is  it  not,  Mr.  Lincoln  ?'  t  If  that's  Latin,'  Lincoln  replied, 
'  you  had  better  call  another  witness.' "* 

The  study  of  mathematics  here  mentioned  is  evidently  that 
referred  to  in  the  following  extract : 

"  His  wider  knowledge  of  men  and  thing's,  acquired  by  contact 
with  the  great  world,  had  shown  him  a  certain  lack  in  himself  of  the 
power  of  close  and  sustained  reasoning-.  To  remedy  this  defect,  he 
applied  himself,  after  his  return  from  Congress,  to  such  works  upon 
logic  and  mathematics  as  he  fancied  would  be  serviceable.  Devoting- 
himself  with  dog-ged  energy  to  the  task  in  hand,  he  soon  learned  by 
heart  six  books  of  the  propositions  of  Euclid,  and  he  retained  throug-h 
life  a  thoroug-h  knowledge  of  the  principles  they  contain."5 

barbell,  1.,  239.  2Arnold,  24.  3Carpenter,  78.  4Tarbell,  I.,  254. 

5Nicolay  and  Hay,  Life,  I.,  298.  "  He  studied  and  nearly  mastered  the  six  books 
of  Euclid  since  he  was  a  member  of  Congress."  Autobiography.  A  striking  example 
of  Lincoln's  use  of  his  knowledge  of  Euclid  is  given  by  the  following  :  "  If  you  have 
ever  studied  geometry,  you  will  remember  that  by  a  course  of  reasoning  Euclid 

proves  that  all  the  angles  in  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles Now 

if  you  undertake  to  disprove  that  proposition  .  .  .  would  you  prove  it  to  be  false 
by  calling  Euclid  a  liar?"  Nicolay  and  Hay,  Works,  I.,  412.  This  is  the  only  direct 
reference  to  Euclid  that  was  noted. 

[5J 


6 

According  to  Herndon,  the  school  books,  used  by  Lincoln 
were  Webster's  Spelling  Book,  the  American  Speller,  Pike's 
Arithmetic,  and  probably  Murray's  English  Reader.1  In  addition 
to  these  books,  Lincoln  read  with  eagerness  the.  Bible,  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  Robinson  Crusoe,  ^Esop's  Fables,  Weems'  [not  Weem's, 
as  in  Nicolay  and  Hay]  Life  of  Washington,  and  a  History  of 
the  United  States.2  It  would  be  hard  to  find  better  models  of  a 
pure  English  style  than  the  Bible,  Bunyan,  and  DeFoe,  while 
the  deep  impression  made  upon  Lincoln  by  ^Esop  can  be  seen 
in  his  love  of  illustrative  anecdotes,  and  perhaps  in  the  epigram 
matic  quality  of  his  style. 

It  is  impossible  to  follow  in  detail  the  course  of  Lincoln's 
reading,  but  some  hints  as  to  its  general  direction  in  the  early 
Illinois  days  can  be  gathered,  the  chief  source  of  this  informa 
tion  being  Herndon's  "  Life."  Writing  of  the  New  Salem  period 
of  1833,  Herndon  says  : 

*'  Meanwhile  he  was  reading-  not  only  law  books,  but  natural 
philosophy  and  other  scientific  subjects.  He  was  a  careful  and  pa 
tient  reader  of  newspapers.  .  .  .  He  paid  a  less  degree  of  atten 
tion  to  historical  works,  althoug-h  he  read  Rollin  and  Gibbon.  .  .  . 
He  had  a  more  pronounced  fondness  for  fictitious  literature,  and  read 
with  evident  relish  Mrs.  Lee  Hentz's  novels,  which  were  very  popular 
books  in  that  day,  and  which  were  kindly  loaned  him  by  his  friend  A. 
Y.  Ellis.  .  .  He  [Ellis]  says  that  Lincoln  was  fond  of  short,  spicy 
stories  one  or  two  columns  long-.  .  .  .  He  remembered  everything- 
he  read,  and  could  afterwards  without  apparent  difficulty  relate  it."3 

This  account  is  of  special  interest  for  several  reasons.  In 
the  first  place,  it  brings  out  clearly  Lincoln's  early  habit  of 
newspaper  reading,  which  was  kept  up  even  after  the  duties  of 

*But  Sumner,  in  his  Eulogy,  refers  to  Dilworth's  Spelling  Book  as  "  one  of  the 
three  volumes  that  formed  the  family  library."  Sumner,  IX.,  375.  "Mr.  Lincoln 
told  me  in  later  years  that  Murray's  English  Reader  was  the  best  school-book 
ever  put  into  the  hands  of  an  American  youth.  I  conclude,  therefore,  he  must  have 
used  that  also."  Herndon,  37. 

8Dr.  J.G.  Holland,  quoted  by  Morse,  I.,  13,  adds  Ramsay's  Life  of  Washington 
and  Lives  of  Henry  Clay  and  Franklin  (probably  the  famous  Autobiography). 
Leonard  Swett  gives  also  Weems'  Life  of  Marion,  adding  the  interesting  statement  : 
"  He  [Lincoln]  said  to  me  that  he  had  got  hold  of  and  read  every  book  he  ever  heard 
of  in  that  country  for  a  circuit  of  about  fifty  miles."  Reminiscences,  459.  Whitney 
is  the  only  authority  for  Lincoln's  knowledge  of  Bacon.  Whitney,  126. 

3Herndon,  112. 

[6] 


his  presidential  office  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  obtain  most 
of  the  news  of  the  day  by  deputy.1  The  reference,  too,  to  his 
fondness  for  newspaper  stories  is  important.  We  shall  several 
times  have  occasion  to  mention  his  equal  fondness  for  the  poets' 
corner  and  the  use  he  made  of  it.  Of  far  greater  importance  is 
the  negative  reference  to  Lincoln's  historical  reading.  A  pos 
sible  clue  to  his  apparent  lack  of  interest  in  this  class  of  litera 
ture  is  furnished  by  the  following  criticism,  as  reported  by 
Herndon,  of  a  life  of  Burke:  "In  1856  I  purchased  in  New 
York  a  Life  of  Edmund  Burke.  I  have  forgotten  now  who  the 
author  was2  ....  One  morning  Lincoln  came  into  the 
office  and,  seeing  the  book  in  my  hands,  enquired  what  I  was 

reading Taking  it  in  his  hand  he  threw  himself 

down  on  the  office  sofa  and  hastily  ran  over  its  pages,  reading 
a  little  here  and  there.  At  last  he  closed  and  threw  it  on  the 
table  with  the  exclamation,  'No,  I've  read  enough  of  it.  It's 
like  all  the  others.  Biographies  as  generally  written  are  not 
only  misleading,  but  false.  The  author  of  this  life  of  Burke 
makes  a  wonderful  hero  out  of  his  subject.  He  magnifies  his 
perfections  —  if  he  had  any — and  suppresses  his  imperfections. 
He  is  so  faithful  in  his  zeal  and  so  lavish  in  praise  of  his 
every  act  that  one  is  almost  driven  to  believe  that  Burke  never 

made  a  mistake  or  a  failure  in  his  life History  is 

not  history  unless  it  is  the  truth.'  "3  Lincoln's  lack  of  interest 
would  seem  to  be  not  in  history,  but  in  histories  as  he  found 
them. 

A  third  element  of  interest  found  in  the  quotation  from 
which  the  criticism  of  Burke  has  led  us,  is  the  information  that 
it  gives  of  Lincoln's  early  attitude  toward  prose  fiction.  In 
spite  of  Herndon^s^statemenf^Tiowever,  it  would  appear  that 
Lincoln's  taste  for  imaginative  literature  inclined  far  more 

1 "  Amid  all  his  labors,  Lincoln  found  time  to  read  the  newspapers,  or,  as  he 
sometimes  expressed  it,  'to  skirmish  with  them.'"  Scribner's  Monthly,  XVIII.,  585. 

2Prpbably  P.  Burke's  "Life  of  Burke,"  published  in  1851  and  characterized  in 
the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  as  "  utterly  valueless."  But  it  may  have  been 
Sir  James  Prior's  "  Life ",  the  fifth  edition  of  which  was  published  in  the  Bohn 
Library  in  1854. 

3Herndon,  437. 

[7] 


8 

toward  poetry  than  prose.  He  once  remarked :  "It  may  seem 
somewhat  strange  to  say,  but  I  never  read  an  entire  novel  in 

my  life I   once  commenced  'Ivanhoe',  but  never 

finished  it."1  In  this  same  conversation  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to 
Carpenter:  "'Who  wrote  the  play?'  [Richelieu,  which  was  to 
be  performed  by  Forrest.]  'Bulwer',  I  replied.  'Ah!'  he  re 
joined,  'Well,  I  knew  Bulwer  wrote  novels,  but  I  did  not  know 
he  was  a  play  writer  also."  This  is  not  quoted  in  order  to 
expose  Mr.  Lincoln's  ignorance  of  the  authorship  of  Richelieu, 
which  is  not  at  all  strange,  but  as  being  one  of  the  very  few 
references  to  novels  made  by  him.  In  Reuben  E.  Fenton's 
article  a  conversation  is  reported  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  men 
tioned  Dickens.2  But  these  later  references  to  fiction  prove 
only  that  Lincoln  did  not  care  for  Scott,  not  that  he  had  read 
either  Bulwer  or  Dickens.  So  we  must  leave  to  Mrs.  Lee  Hentz 
the  one  distinction  of  which  she  can  now  boast,  of  being  the 
only  novelist  that  Lincoln  is  know^n  to  have  enjoyed. 

Finally,  we  have  in  Herndon's  account  one  of  the  many 
references  to  Lincoln's  phenomenal  memory,  a  memory  appar 
ently  of  very  much  the  same  character  as  Macaulay's.  A 
careful  examination  of  the  facts,  however,  seems  to  bring  out 
contradictions  in  the  claims  made  by  some  of  Lincoln's  friends. 
Herndon  says :  "  No  one  had  a  more  retentive  memory.  If  he 
ever  read  or  heard  a  good  thing  it  never  escaped  him."3  In  the 
same  strain  Noah  Brooks  says  :  "  The  truth  was,  that  anything 
he  heard  or  read  fastened  itself  into  his  mind,  if  it  tickled  his 
fancy."4  And  General  Viele  states  that  he  had  "a  memory  so 
wonderful  that  he  could  repeat,  almost  word  for  word,  what 
ever  he  had  read."5  On  the  other  hand,  Lincoln  himself  once 
said:  "My  mind  is  like  a  piece  of  steel, —  very  hard  to  scratch 
anything  on  it,  almost  impossible  after  you  get  it  there  to 
rub  it  out."6  But  it  is  probable  that  Lincoln  referred  here 

Carpenter,  115. 

2 "You  know  Dickens  said  of  a  certain  man  that  if  he  would  always  follow  his 
nose  he  would  never  stick  fast  in  the  mud."  Reminiscences,  74. 

3Herndon,  44  ;  see  also  p.  113.  4Scribner's  Monthly,  XV.,  563. 

"Scribner's  Monthly,  XVI.,  814.        °Source  not  found. 

[8] 


9 

to  the  slowness  with  which  he  received  ideas  rather  than 
to  the  impression  made  on  his  mind  by  the  language  in 
which  they  were  expressed.  Unconscious  testimony  is  given 
by  Noah  Brooks  in  his  account  of  Lincoln's  acquaintance 
with  Longfellow's  'Birds  of  Killingworth',  "which  he  picked 
up  somewhere  in  a  newspaper,  cut  out  and  carried  in  his 
vest  pocket  until  it  was  committed  to  memory."1  If  Lincoln 
had  had  the  memory  so  often  attributed  to  him,  one  reading  of 
the  piece  would  have  done  away  with  the  necessity  of  carrying 
it  in  his  pocket  for  later  reference.  An  examination  of  the  list 
of  quotations  will  justify  General  Viele's  limitation,  for  several 
of  them  are  far  from  being  'word  for  word'. 

But  after  all,  the  question  of  the  exact  quality  of  Lincoln's 
memory  is  not  one  of  prime  importance.  We  must  not  accept 
too  literally  all  statements  about  any  great  man's  ability, 
especially  when  these  are  made  by  personal  friends  and  ad 
mirers,  and  of  all  qualities  of  the  intellect,  the  memory,  though 
perhaps  the  least  important,  is  the  one  that  most  readily  appeals 
to  the  average  mind. 

While  Herndon's  statements  of  facts  are  invaluable,  his  ex 
pressions  of  opinion  must  often  be  taken  with  a  generous  pinch 
of  salt.  It  is  certainly  going  too  far  to  say  that "  beyond  a  limited 
acquaintance  with  Shakespeare,  Byron  and  Burns,  Mr.  Lincoln, 
comparatively  speaking,  had  no  knowledge  of  literature."3 
This  statement  probably  reflects  more  severely  upon  Mr.  Hern 
don's  appreciation  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  than  upon  the  latter's 
knowledge  of  literature.  This  much  may  be  said,  however,  in 
extenuation,  that  Lincoln's  powers  of  literary  criticism  do  not 
seem  to  have  found  frequent  expression  until  during  the  last 
four  years  of  his  life,  when  they  were  brought  out  by  the  con 
genial  atmosphere  of  Washington.  The  volume  of  critical 
opinion  by  Lincoln,  preserved  from  those  four  years,  far  exceeds 
that  of  the  whole  of  his  preceding  life. 

But  before  considering  Lincoln's  critical  powers  it  will  be 
well  to  present  the  facts  gleaned  with  regard  to  his  reading. 

Carper,  XXXI.,  229.  2Herndon,  320. 


10 

Herndon  gives  a  list  of  the  newspapers  and  books  that  were 
read  by  Lincoln  and  him  during  the  years  immediately  preceding 
the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates  of  1858.  The  books  included  "the 
latest  utterances  of  Giddings,  Phillips,  Sumner,  Seward,  and  one 
whom  I  considered  grander  than  all  others, — Theodore  Parker."1 
It  is  interesting  to  note,  though  it  has  no  direct  bearing  on  the 
question  of  his  literary  taste  and  development,  that  at  that  time 
Lincoln  regularly  read  two  of  the  leading  Southern  pro-slavery 
journals,  The  Charleston  Mercury  and  The  Richmond  Enquirer, 
and  that  he  read,  also  with  Herndon,  "all  the  leading  histories 
of  the  slavery  movement,  and  other  works  which  treated  on 
that  subject."2 

Of  special  interest  in  connection  with  the  study  of  Lincoln's 
public  speaking  is  the  question  of  what  public  speakers  he  himr 
self  read  and  admired.  Disregarding  here  the  contemporary 
debaters  of  the  slavery  question,  whose  works  would  be  read 
by  Lincoln  for  the  arguments  they  presented,  and  without  any 
necessary  reference  to  their  literary  qualities,  we  find  the  fol 
lowing  important  statement  by  Lincoln's  intimate  friend  Isaac 
N.  Arnold :  "Patrick  Henry  had  always  been  his  ideal  orator."8 
He  also  admired  Clay,  whom  he  called  his  "beau  ideal  of  a 
statesman,"4  Calhoun,  and,  of  course,  Webster,  whose  reply  to 
Hayne  "he  read  when  he  lived  at  New  Salem,  and  which  he 
always  regarded  as  the  grandest  specimen  of  American  oratory."5 
This  last  does  not  contradict  Arnold's  statement  as  to  Patrick 
Henry,  as  it  refers  to  the  single  oration,  not  to  the  orator.  In 
a  conversation  with  Noah  Brooks  Mr.  Lincoln  once  said  :  "  Now, 
do  you  know,  I  think  Edward  Everett  was  very  much  over 
rated.""  With  the  exception  of  the  reference  to  the  life  of 
Burke,  no  mention  of  Burke's  name  has  been  discovered,  and 
it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  Lincoln  was  not  acquainted 
even  with  his  speeches  on  the  colonies. 

While  Lincoln's  admiration  of  Byron  is  often  referred  to, 
only  two  of  his  works  are  specifically  mentioned  as  having  been 

Herndon,  363.  2Herndon,  363.  8Arnold,  145. 

*Nicolay  and  Hay,  Works,  L,  299  ;  see  also  Lincoln's  Eulogy  of  Clay,  p.  170. 
r'Herndon,  478.  "Scribner's  Monthly,  XV.,  678. 

[10] 


11 

read  by  him.     Lamon  says  :    "  Byron's  '  Dream '  was  a  favorite 
poem,   and   I    have   often   heard    him    repeat    the    following 

lines : 

'  Sleep  hath  its  own  world, 
A  boundary  between  the  thing's  misnamed 
Death  and  existence  :  Sleep  hath  its  own  world, 
And  a  wide  realm  of  wild  reality  !' "  etc.1 

The  second  reference,  taken  from  Whitney,  is  far  more  im 
portant.  "  Closely  allied  with  this  sad  trait  was  an  inherent 
belief  in  his  destiny  ;  perhaps  the  specific  destiny  was  not  very 
clearly  indicated,  but  that,  somehow,  the  Genius,  whom  we  hail 
as  destiny,  had  touched  him  with  her  wand,  and  marked  him  for 
her  own. 

"  Apropos  of  this,  I  recollect  that  in  the  fall  of  1854,  Mr. 
Lincoln,  with  other  lawyers  from  abroad,  drove  over  from 
Urbana,  the  county  seat,  to  West  Urbana  (now  Champaign),  to 
see  the  embryo  town,  and,  while  there,  stopped  at  my  law  office, 
which  had  been  improvised  in  the  dining-room  of  my  father's 
house.  I  had  no  law  library  to  speak  of,  but  made  a  display  of 
miscellaneous  books  to  fill  up,  and  render  less  inviting  the  ap 
pearance  of  the  cupboard  shelves.  Lincoln  took  down  a  well- 
worn  copy  of  Byron  (which  no  boy's  library  at  that  time  was 
without)  and,  readily  turning  to  the  third  canto  of  Childe 
Harold,  read  aloud  from  the  34th  verse  [stanza],  commencing : 

'  There  is  a  very  life  in  our  despair,'  etc. 
to  and  including  the  45th  verse, 

4  He  who  ascends  to  mountain  tops  shall  find 

Those  loftiest  peaks  most  wrapped  in  clouds  and  snow: 

He  who  surpasses  or  subdues  mankind 

Must  look  down  on  the  hate  of  those  below  ; 

Thoug-h  hig-h  above,  the  sun  of  glory  glow, 

And  far  beneath,  the  Earth  and  Ocean  spread, 

Round  him  are  icy  rocks,  and  loudly  blow 

Contending-  tempests  on  his  naked  head, 

And  thus  reward  the  toils  which  to  those  summits  lead.' 

"  This  poetry  was  very  familiar  to  him  evidently  ;  he  looked 

JLamon,  121. 

[ii] 


12 

specifically  for,  and  found  it  with  no  hesitation,  and  read  it 
with  a  fluency  that  indicated  that  he  had  read  it  oftentimes 
before.  I  think  I  am  justified  in  saying  that  he  read  it  sadly 
and  earnestly,  if  not,  indeed,  reverently."1 

The  references  to  Burns  are  of  an  even  more  unsatisfactory 
character.  Carpenter  is  certainly  wrong  when  he  names  Burns 
as  Lincoln's  favorite  poet.2  Arnold  says  more  reasonably : 
"  Next  to  Shakespeare  among  the  poets  was  Burns.  There  was 
a  lecture  of  his  upon  Burns  full  of  favorite  quotations  and  sound 
criticism.  He  sympathized  thoroughly  with  the  poem  '  A  Man's 
a  Man  for  a'  that.' "  and  again,  "  He  could  repeat  nearly  all  the 
poems  of  Burns."3  Though  Noah  Brooks  does  not  mention 
Burns  in  connection  with  the  President's  reading,  he  refers  to 
his  fondness  for  "  plaintive  Scotch  songs."4  And  yet  in  spite  of 
this  strong  evidence  of  Lincoln's  admiration  of  Burns,  not  a 
single  quotation  from  the  Scotch  poet  occurs  in  either  his 
speeches  or  conversation,  and  no  trace  of  the  lecture  on  Burns 
is  to  be  found  in  his  Works.  Between  Herndon's  statement  of 
"a  limited  acquaintance  with  Burns,"  and  Arnold's  claim  that 
"he  could  repeat  nearly  all  the  poems  of  Burns,"  there  is  a 
middle  ground  of  conjecture  on  which  the  critic  is  at  liberty 
to  disport  himself  to  his  heart's  content. 

An  examination  of  the  files  of  the  Urbana  Union  for  1854, 
then  edited  by  Judge  J.  0.  Cunningham,  revealed  one  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  newspaper  poets  who  has  escaped  the  attention  of 
his  biographers.  His  name  is  John  M.  Leslie,  and  he  was  at 
that  time  a  resident  of  Danville,  Illinois.  Many  of  his  poems 
were  written  for  this  paper,  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  the 
habit  of  reading  when  in  Urbana  on  the  circuit.  Judge  Cun 
ningham  informed  the  writer  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  fond  of 
Leslie's  poetry.  By  connecting  the  sitting  of  the  court  at  Urbana 
with  the  appearance  of  the  different  poems  it  would  be  possible 
to  determine  with  certainty  which  of  these  were  read  by 
Mr.  Lincoln,  but  that  investigation  must  be  left  for  later 

1Whitney,  140-141.  '-Carpenter,  114.  'Arnold,  444  and  45. 

4Harper,' XXXI.,  229. 

[12] 


18 

treatment.  The  poem  from  1854  that  was  noted  is  called  "  The 
Phantom,"  and  it  shows  considerable  imaginative  power. 

Much  interesting  information  as  to  Lincoln's  preference  for 
single  poems  is  given  by  Herndon,  Whitney,  Lamon  and  Noah 
Brooks.  Lincoln  preferred  what  he  called  "  little  sad  songs."1 
Brooks  characterizes  his  taste  as  extending  especially  toward 
"  all  songs  which  had  for  their  theme  the  rapid  flight  of  time,  de 
cay,  the  recollections  of  early  days."2  Among  his  favorites  may 
be  mentioned  'Twenty  Years  Ago',  'Ben  Bolt',  'The  Sword  of 
Bunker  Hill',  'The  Lament  of  the  Irish  Emigrant',  and  Holmes' 
'The  Last  Leaf.  Lincoln  once  said  to  Carpenter  of  the  last: 
"  '  There  are  some  quaint,  queer  verses,  written,  I  think,  by  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  entitled,  'The  Last  Leaf,  one  of  which  is  to 
me  inexpressibly  touching.'  He  then  repeated  these  also  from 
memory As  he  finished  this  verse  '  The  mossy  mar 
bles  rest',  he  said,  in  his  most  emphatic  way,  'For  pure  pathos, 
in  my  judgment,  there  is  nothing  finer  than  those  six  lines  in 
the  English  language.'"3  After  Mr.  Lincoln's  death  a  copy  of 
Charles  Mackay's  'The  Enquiry'  was  found  in  an  envelope 
marked  in  his  hand  writing,  'Poem.  I  like  this.'* 

Lamon  gives  the  titles  of  several  comic  songs  that  were 
enjoyed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  and  mentions  his  fondness  for  negro 
melodies,  but  to  judge  by  the  example  submitted,  these  latter 
were  not  of  the  genuine  plantation  growth,  but  were  inferior 
minstrel  exotics. 

Special  mention  should  be  made  of  the  poem  that  became 
so  closely  associated  with  Lincoln  that  its  authorship  was  often 
attributed  to  him.  This  is  "Immortality",  or  "Oh  !  why  should 
the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud?"  According  to  Herndon  the 

'"One  'little  sad  song'— a  simple  ballad  entitled  'Twenty  Years  Ago' — was, 
above  all  others,  his  favorite.  .  .  .  He  loved  simple  ballads  and  ditties,  whether 
of  the  comic  or  pathetic  kind  ;  but  no  one  in  the  list  touched  his  great  heart  as  did 
the  song  of  'Twenty  Years  Ago.'"  Lamon,  147. 

2Harper,  XXXI.,  229. 

^Carpenter,  58.     A  letter  from  Dr.  Holmes,  written  in  1866,    refers  to  the  poem 
and  to  the  President's  use  of  it.     Whitney,  484-5. 
4Herndon,  320. 

[13] 


14 

poem  was  first  given  to  Lincoln  by  Dr.  Jason  Duncan  in  1842, 
shortly  after  the  death  of  a  friend,  Bowlin  Greene,  by  whom 
Lincoln  had  been  helped  in  the  trying  months  succeeding  the 
death  of  his  first  love,  Ann  Rutledge.  The  poem  seems  to  have 
been  associated  in  his  mind  with  that  earlier  grief.1  Mr.  Lincoln 
himself  said  to  Carpenter :  "  The  poem  was  first  shown  to  me 
by  a  young  man  named  Jason  Duncan,  many  years  ago/'5 
Were  it  not  for  these  explicit  statements  it  would  be  natural 
to  suppose  that  "Immortality"  is  the  poem  referred  to  in  the 
following  extract  from  a  letter  to  -  -  Johnston,  dated  April 
18,  1846 : 

"  I  think  you  ask  me  who  is  the  author  of  the  piece  I  sent  to  you, 
and  that  you  do  so  as  to  indicate  a  slight  suspicion  that  I  myself  am 
the  author.  I  would  give  all  I  am  worth,  and  go  in  debt,  to  be  able 
to  write  so  fine  a  piece  as  I  think  that  is.  Neither  do  I  know  who  is 
the  author.  I  met  it  in  a  straggling-  form  in  a  newspaper  last  sum 
mer,  and  I  remember  to  have  seen  it  once  before,  about  fifteen  years 
ago,  and  that  is  all  I  know  about  it."  3 

Indeed,  the  references  to  this  poem  resemble  so  closely 
Lincoln's  estimate  of  "  Immortality  "  that  one  is  tempted  to 
disregard  the  slight  contradictions  of  the  three  accounts. 

The  principal  authorities  for  Lincoln's  later  reading,  be 
sides  those  already  quoted,  are  the  writers  in  the  Reminiscen 
ces  and  General  Viele.  The  last  named  gives  the  only  refer 
ence  that  has  been  discovered  to  Lincoln's  knowledge  of 
Browning. 

u  With  a  mind  well  stored  with  the  grandest  and  most  beautiful 
in  English  literature  ...  he  would  sit  for  hours  during  the 
trip  repeating  the  finest  passages  of  Shakespere's  best  plays,  page 
after  page  of  Browning  and  whole  cantos  of  Byron.  He  was  as 

1  "He  committed  these  lines  to  memory,  and  any  reference  to  or  mention  of 
Miss  Rutledge  would  suggest  them."  Herndon,  140. 

2Carpenter,  59.  In  this  conversation  mention  is  made  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  sup 
posed  authorship  of  the  poem. 

3Nicolay  and  Hay,  Works,  I,  86.  "He  (Lincoln)  quoted  aloud  and  at  length  the 
poem  called  'Immortality.'  When  he  had  finished  he  was  questioned  as  to  its 

authorship He  had  forgotten  the  author,  but  said  that  to  him  it  sounded  as 

much  like  true  poetry  as  anything  he  had  ever  heard."  Herndon,  320.  Arnold,  43, 
also  speaks  of  Lincoln's  association  of  the  poem  with  Ann  Rutledge. 

[14] 


15 

familiar  with  belles  lettres  as  many  men  who  make  much  more  pre 
tension  to  '  culture  '."  * 

One  cannot  help  wondering  what  pages  of  Browning  were 
repeated  by  so  unexpected  an  admirer.  It  would  be  interest 
ing  also  to  learn  what  parts  of  Byron  were  included.  If  the 
phrase  " whole  cantos"  is  correctly  used,  the  extracts  must 
have  been  from  one  or  more  of  the  long  poems.  In  the  inter 
view  with  McDonough  three  poets,  not  elsewhere  mentioned, 
are  connected  with  Lincoln's  reading,  but  the  statement  is  so 
general  that  it  need  not  be  taken  too  literally.  "  He  inter 
spersed  his  remarks  with  extracts  striking  from  their  similarity 
to,  or  contrast  with,  something  of  Shakespere's,  from  Byron? 
Rogers,  Campbell,  Moore  and  other  poets." 

Brooks  speaks  of  Lincoln's  fondness  for  Hood  and  Holmes, 
which  we  should  expect.  "  Of  the  former  author  he  liked  best 
the  last  part  of  'Miss  Kilmansegg  and  her  Golden  Leg',  'Faith 
less  Sally  Brown',  and  one  or  two  others  not  generally  so  pop 
ular  as  those  which  are  called  Hood's  best.  Holmes'  '  Septem 
ber  Gale',  'Last  Leaf, 'Chambered  Nautilus',  and  'Ballad  of 
an  Oysterman'  were  among  his  very  few  favorite  poems. 
Longfellow's  'Psalm  of  Life'  and  'Birds  of  Killingworth '  were 
the  only  productions  of  that  author  he  ever  mentioned  with 
praise.  .  .  .  James  Russell  Lowell  he  only  knew  as  '  Hosea 
Biglow',  every  one  of  whose  effusions  he  knew.  .  .  .  He 
once  said  that  originality  and  daring  impudence  were  sublimed 
in  this  stanza  of  Lowell's : 

'  Ef  you  take  a  sword  and  dror  it, 
An'  stick  a  feller  creetur  thru, 
Gov'ment  hain't  to  answer  for  it, 
God'll  send  the  bill  to  you.' "  3 

On  one  occasion  Noah  Brooks  repeated  Longfellow's  'The 
Building  of  the  Ship',  a  quotation  from  which  had  attracted 
the  President.  "As  he  listened  to  the  lines: 

'  Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  tears, 
Our  faith  triumphant  o'er  our  fears.' 

^cribner's  Monthly,  XVI.,  813. 
2Reminiscences,  267.     ^Harper,  XXXI.,  229. 


16 

his  eyes  filled  ....  and  his  cheeks  were  wet.  He  did 
not  speak  for  some  minutes,  but  finally  said,  with  simplicity: 
'  It  is  a  wonderful  gift  to  be  able  to  stir  men  like  that.'" l  N.P. 
Willis  once  told  Carpenter  that  "he  was  taken  by  surprise  on  a 
certain  occasion  when  he  was  riding  with  the  President  .  .  . 
by  Mr.  Lincoln  of  his  own  accord  referring  to  and  quoting  sev 
eral  lines  from  his  poem  entitled  'Parrhasius  [and  the  Cap 
tive]'."5 

The  only  mention  of  Lincoln's  reading  on  the  subject  of 
the  fine  arts  is  given  by  the  artist  Thomas  Hicks.  Speaking  of 
his  own  portrait,  on  which  the  artist  was  engaged,  Mr.  Lincoln 
said :  "  It  interests  me  to  see  how,  by  adding  a  touch  here  and 
a  touch  there,  you  make  it  look  more  like  me.  I  do  not  under 
stand  it,  but  I  see  it  is  a  vocation  in  which  the  work  is  very 
fine.  ...  I  once  read  a  book  which  gave  an  account  of 
some  Italian  painters  and  their  work  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
and,  taking  the  author's  statement  for  it,  they  must  have  had 
a  great  talent  for  the  work  they  had  to  do."3 

The  humorous  prose  writers  from  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  so 
often  quoted  were  David  R.  Locke  (author  of  the  Nasby  Let 
ters),  Orpheus  C.  Kerr,  Artemus  Ward,  Joe  Miller,  and  Baldwin 
(author  of  'Flush  Times  in  Alabama').  In  his  introduction  to 
the  "Nasby  Letters",  published  in  1872,  Charles  Sumner  gives 
a  very  interesting  account  of  the  book  and  its  relations  to  Mr. 
Lincoln.  He  says :  "  Of  publications  during  the  war  none  had 
such  charm  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  read  every  letter  as  it 
appeared  and  kept  them  all  within  reach  for  refreshment.  .  .  . 
He  then  repeated  with  enthusiasm  the  message  he  had  sent  to 
the  author:  'For  the  genius  to  write  these  things  I  would 
gladly  give  up  my  office. ";  David  li.  Locke,  in  his  article  on 
Lincoln,  states :  "  Lincoln  also  seized  eagerly  upon  everything 
that  Orpheus  C.  Kerr  wrote,  and  knew  it  all  by  heart." f  Whit 
ney  furnishes  the  following  testimony  to  Lincoln's  acquaintance 

iScribner's  Monthly,  XVIII.,  585. 
2Carpenter,  115. 
3Reminiscences,  599. 

4Sumner,  XV.,  65-66.     -''Reminiscences,  448. 

[16] 


17 

with  one  of  the  humorous  classics :  "Judge  Treat  told  me  that 
he  once  lent  Lincoln  a  copy  of  'Joe  Miller',  and  Lincoln  kept 
it  for  a  while  and  evidently  learned  its  entire  contents,  for  he 
found  Lincoln  narrating  the  stories  therein  around  the  Circuit, 
but  very  much  embellished  and  changed,  evidently  by  Lincoln 
himself."1 

Although  Mr.  Lincoln's  later  reading  consisted  for  the  most 
part  of  poetry  and  humorous  prose,  he  was  also  "a  lover  of 
many  philosophical  works,  and  particularly  liked  Butler's  Anal 
ogy  of  Religion,  [John]  Stuart  Mill  on  Liberty,  and  he  always 
hoped  to  get  at  President  Edwards  on  the  Memory."'  The  only 
work  at  all  belonging  to  this  class  that  we  know  that  Lincoln 
had  read  while  living  in  Illinois  is  a  book  called  t  Vestiges  of 
[the  Natural  History  of]  Creation',  "which  interested  him  so 
much  that  he  read  it  through."3  In  the  same  passage  Herndon 
gives  the  negative  testimony  that  Lincoln  found  the  "works  of 
Spencer,  Darwin,  and  the  utterances  of  other  English  scientists 
.  .  .  entirely  too  heavy  for  an  ordinary  mind  to  digest."  On 
a  preceding  page  Herndon  states :  "  Investigation  into  first 
causes,  abstruse  mental  phenomena,  the  science  of  being,  he 
brushed  aside  as  trash  —  mere  scientific  absurdities."  This 
view  of  Lincoln's  mind  is  borne  out  by  Joseph  Gillespie  in  a 
letter  of  1866.  It  is  possible  that  Lincoln's  taste  for  Butler 
and  Mill  developed  in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  as  the  result  of 
a  broader  mental  outlook.  In  the  lecture  on  Inventions,  Lin 
coln  quotes  from  Plato,  but  there  is  no  proof  that  he  had  ever 
read  the  Greek  Philosopher.  Herndon  states  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
read  Volney's  'Ruins'  and  Paine's  'Age  of  Reason'.* 

Of  special  interest  in  connection  with  the  study  of  Lin 
coln's  style  is  his  love  of  the  Bible.  Disregarding  as  irrelevant 

'Whitney,  126  and  177.  ^Harper,  XXXL,  229. 

3Herndon,  437.  "The  volume  was  published  in  Edinburgh,  anonymously,  and 
undertook  to  demonstrate  the  doctrine  of  development  or  evolution.  The  treatise 
interested  him  greatly,  and  he  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  notion  of  the  so- 
called  'universal  law' — evolution  ;  he  did  not  extend  greatly  his  researches,  but  by 
continual  thinking  in  a  single  channel  seemed  to  grow  into  a  warm  advocate  of  the 
new  doctrine."  The  authorship  was  generally  attributed  to  Robert  Chambers,  but 
was  not  acknowledged  until  the  appearance  of  the  twelfth  edition  in  1884. 

4Herndon,  439. 

[17] 


18 

here  the  question  of  Lincoln's  religious  belief,  concerning  which 
his  different  biographers  show  such  wide  divergence  of  opinion, 
we  are  straightway  impressed  by  the  fact  that  at  all  stages  of 
his  development  Lincoln  refers  to  or  quotes  from  the  Bible, 
both  in  his  conversation  and  in  his  writings.  Indeed,  he  shows 
a  familiarity  with  the  Scriptures  that  almost  justifies  Arnold's 
statement :  "  He  knew  the  Bible  by  heart.  There  was  not  a 
clergyman  to  be  found  so  familiar  with  it  as  he."1  His  knowl 
edge  of  the  Bible  seems  to  have  been  as  accurate  as  it  was 
extensive.  "  He  would  sometimes  correct  a  misquotation  of 
Scripture,  giving  generally  the  chapter  and  verse  where  it 
could  be  found."2  In  the  same  passage  Brooks  states,  but 
unfortunately  without  furnishing  proof,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  "liked 
the  Old  Testament  best".  He  adds  that  "whole  chapters  of 
Isaiah,  the  New  Testament  and  the  Psalms  were  fixed  in  his 
memory."  Lincoln's  familiarity  with  the  Psalms  may  be  taken 
in  connection  with  Ruskin's  acknowledgment  of  his  indebted 
ness  to  that  book  in  the  formation  of  his  style.  Lincoln's  love 
of  the  Bible  and  Shakspere  suggests  Sir  Henry  Irving's  reply 
to  a  request  that  he  furnish  a  list  of  what  he  regarded  as 
the  hundred  best  books:  "  Before  a  hundred  books  commend 
me  first  to  the  study  of  two,— the  Bible  and  Shakespeare." 

It  is  possible,  however,  to  exaggerate  Lincoln's  direct  use 
of  the  Bible  in  his  writings.  If  Arnold  had  made  a  careful 
examination  of  the  works  of  Lincoln  he  would  not  have  stated 
that  "  scarcely  a  speech  or  paper  prepared  by  him  from  this 
time  (1834)  to  his  death,  but  contains  apt  allusions  and  strik 
ing  illustrations  from  the  sacred  book."3 

On  the  contrary,  investigation  shows  great  unevenness  in 
the  use  of  Biblical  quotations.  Taking  some  representative  ad 
dresses  and  other  papers  from  different  periods,  we  establish  the 
following  facts :  In  five  speeches  between  1839  and  1852,  six  quo 
tations  from  the  Bible  were  noted,  four  of  these  occurring  in  the 
temperance  lecture  of  1842.  In  a  speech  made  in  1854  in  reply 
to  Senator  Douglas  two  quotations  from  the  New  Testament 

Arnold,  45.  2Harper,  XXXI.,  229.  'Arnold,  45- 

[18] 


19 

and  one  reference  to  the  Old  Testament  occur.  In  1856 
we  find  the  celebrated  "  House-divided-against-itself  speech", 
which,  however,  contains  no  other  quotations  than  the  one 
from  which  it  has  received  its  unfortunate  name.  The  Bloom  - 
ington  speech  of  the  same  year,  the  so-called  lost  speech,  on  the 
other  hand,  shows  the  largest  number  of  Biblical  quotations 
anywhere  noted.  There  are  four  passages  from  the  New  Tes 
tament  and  two  from  the  Old  Testament,  six  in  all.  As  will  be 
brought  out  in  the  proper  place  this  speech  is  also  distinguished 
by  an  unusually  large  proportion  of  figures.  Of  the  ten  speeches 
delivered  in  1858  in  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates,  two  contain 
one  reference  each  and  several  of  them  refer  to  the  quotation, 
"a  house  divided  against  itself  ",  in  connection  with  the  earlier 
speech.  The  great  Cooper  Institute  Address  of  1860  shows  no 
trace  of  direct  Biblical  influence.  ^Turning  now  to  the  important 
presidential  addresses,  we  find  in  the  First  Inaugural  only  one 
reference,  in  the  Gettysburg  Address  none,  but  in  the  Second 
Inaugural  four.  The  two  Messages  to  Congress  of  1861  are 
without  any  quotations.  The  twenty-five  speeches  examined 
were  found  to  contain  twenty-two  references  to  the  Bible,  or 
an  average  of  less  than  one  to  each  speech.  Eight  of  the  refer 
ences  were  from  the  Old  Testament,  fourteen  from  the  New 
Testament.  This  majority  in  favor  of  the  New  Testament, 
however,  does  not  disprove  Brooks'  statement  of  Lincoln's  pref 
erence  for  the  Old  Testament,  as,  in  the  first  place,  the  instances 
are  not  sufficiently  numerous  to  form  a  fair  basis  for  compar 
ison,  and,  in  the  second  place,  the  results  of  the  examination 
of  Lincoln's  quotations  from  other  writers  warn  us  not  to 
attach  too  much  importance  to  this  matter. 

\  The  number  of  quotations  from  Shakspere  is  even  smaller 
than  that  from  the  Bible.  A  reference  to  the  list  in  the 
appendix  shows  that  the  plays  cited  are  "Hamlet",  "Macbeth", 
"King  Lear"  and  "The  Merchant  of  Venice",  and  Falstaff  is 
once  mentioned  by  way  of  comparison.  When  we  consider  the 
ample  testimony  of  Carpenter,  Brooks  and  others  to  Lincoln's 
habit  of  introducing  passages  of  Shakspere  in  his  conversation, 

[19] 


20 

this  comparative  neglect  of  his  favorite  poet  in  his  writings  is 

Imarkable. 
With  the  exception  of  the  orators,  statesmen  and  Shaks- 
pere,  not  one  of  the  writers  w^hom  Lincoln  is  known  to  have 
read  and  admired  is  quoted  by  him.  Not  even  Burns  and  Byron 
are  to  be  found,  and  there  are  only  two  references  to  the  fables 
of  his  old  favorite  ^Esop.  All  but  two  of  the  quotations  are  in 
verse,  and  the  authors  that  have  been  identified,  besides  these 
already  mentioned,  are  T.  H.  Bayly,  Dickens,  Robert  Herrick, 
Pope  and  Scott. 

The  only  possible  way  of  explaining  this  apparent  absence 
of  any  close  relation  between  Lincoln's  reading  and  his  use  of 
quotations  is  that  he  generally  used  "familiar  quotations",  as 
he  used  proverbial  sayings.  This  is  clearly  brought  out  in  an 
instance  such  as  the  quotation  from  Pope,  which  is  introduced 
with  these  words:  "As  some  poet  has  said".  The  quotation 
"  Behind  the  clouds  the  sun  is  shining  still ",  the  author  of 
which  has  not  been  identified,  is  introduced  with  the  words : 
"As  some  poet  has  expressed  it".  It  is  not  at  all  probable 
that  Lincoln  had  ever  read  Herrick,  except  perhaps  in 
some  stray  selection.  But  even  admitting  this  supposition  it 
remains  a  surprise  that  Lincoln  should  confine  his  quotations 
from  his  favorite  writers  almost  wholly  to  conversation. 

Turning  now  to  the  consideration  of  Lincoln's  literary 
criticisms  we  find  a  number  of  reports  of  his  views  of  Shaks- 
pere  and  of  the  relation  of  the  plays  to  the  stage.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  of  these  is  found  in  a  letter  to  the  actor 
Hackett,  and  it  is  also  the  only  specimen  of  Lincoln's  Shaks- 
pere  criticism  written  by  his  own  hand  :  "  For  one  of  my  age 
I  have  seen  very  little  of  the  drama.  The  first  presentation  of 
Falstaff  I  ever  saw  was  yours  here,  last  winter  or  spring 
[1862-3].  Perhaps  the  best  compliment  I  can  pay  is  to  say,  as 
I  truly  can,  I  am  very  anxious  to  see  it  again.  Some  of  Shaks- 
pere's  plays  I  have  never  read ;  while  others  I  have  gone  over 
perhaps  as  frequently  as  any  unprofessional  reader.  Among 
the  latter  are  'Lear',  'Richard  III.',  'Henry  VIII.',  'Hamlet', 

[20] 


21 

and  especially  'Macbeth'.  I  think  nothing  equals  'Macbeth'. 
It  is  wonderful. 

"  Unlike  you  gentlemen  of  the  profession,  I  think  the  solil 
oquy  in  'Hamlet'  commencing,  'Oh,  my  offense  is  rank', 
surpasses  that  commencing,  'To  be  or  not  to  be'.  But  pardon 
this  small  attempt  at  criticism.  I  should  like  to  hear  you 
pronounce  the  opening  speech  of  '  Richard  III.'  " l 

The  following  passage  from  Carpenter  is  closely  connected 
in  part  with  the  Hackett  letter:  "Presently  the  conversation 
turned  upon  Shakespeare,  of  whom  it  is  w^ell  known  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  very  fond.  He  once  remarked,  'It  matters  not  to  me 
whether  Shakespeare  be  well  or  ill  acted,  with  him  the  thought 
suffices'.  Edwin  Booth  was  playing  an  engagement  at  this 
time  at  Grover's  Theatre.  He  had  been  announced  for  the 
coming  evening  in  his  famous  part  of  'Hamlet'.  The  Presi 
dent  had  never  witnessed  his  representation  of  this  character, 
and  he  proposed  being  present.  The  mention  of  this  play, 
which  I  afterward  learned  had  at  all  times  a  peculiar  charm 
for  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind,  waked  up  a  train  of  thought  I  was  not 
prepared  for.  Said  he  ...  'There  is  one  passage  of  the 
play  of  '  Hamlet '  which  is  very  apt  to  be  slurred  over  by  the 
actor,  or  omitted  altogether,  which  seems  to  me  the  choicest 
part  of  the  play.  It  is  the  soliloquy  of  the  King,  after  the 
murder  [of  Polonius].  It  always  struck  me  as  one  of  the  finest 
touches  of  nature  in  the  world.' 

"  Then,  throwing  himself  into  the  very  spirit  of  the  scene, 
he  took  up  the  words : — '  Oh  !  my  offence  is  rank,  it  smells  to 
heaven'.  He  repeated  this  entire  passage  from  memory,  with 
a  feeling  and  appreciation  unsurpassed  by  anything  I  ever 
witnessed  on  the  stage.  Remaining  in  thought  for  a  few  mo 
ments,  he  continued  :— 

"'The  opening  of  the  play  of  'King  Richard  the  Third' 
seems  to  me  often  entirely  misapprehended.  It  is  quite  com 
mon  for  an  actor  to  come  upon  the  stage,  and,  in  a  sophomoric 
style,  to  begin  with  a  flourish  :— 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  392. 

[21] 


22 

"  Now  is  the  winter  of  our  discontent 
Made  glorious  summer  by  this  sun  of  York, 
And  all  the  clouds  that  lowered  upon  our  house, 
In  the  deep  bosom  of  the  ocean  buried  !  " 

Now/  said  he,  'this  is  all  wrong.  Richard,  you  remember,  had 
been  and  was  then,  plotting  the  destruction  of  his  brothers,  to 
make  room  for  himself.  Outwardly,  the  most  loyal  to  the 
newly  crowned  king ;  secretly,  he  could  scarcely  contain  his 
impatience  at  the  obstacles  still  in  the  way  of  his  own  eleva  - 
tion.  He  appears  upon  the  stage,  just  after  the  crowning  of 
Edward,  burning  with  repressed  hate  and  jealousy.  The  pro 
logue  is  the  utterance  of  the  most  intense  bitterness  and  satire/ 

"  Then,  unconsciously  assuming  the  character,  Mr.  Lincoln 
repeated,  also  from  memory,  Richard's  soliloquy,  rendering  it 
with  a  degree  of  force  and  power  that  made  it  seem  like  a  new 
creation  to  me.  Though  familiar  with  the  passage  from  boy 
hood,  I  can  truly  say  that  never  till  that  moment  had  I  fully 
appreciated  its  spirit."1 

After  seeing  Booth  as  Shylock,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  Noah 
Brooks  :  "  It  was  a  good  performance,  but  I  had  a  thousand 
times  rather  read  it  at  home,  if  it  were  not  for  Booth's  play 
ing.  A  farce,  or  a  comedy,  is  best  played  ;  a  tragedy  is  best  read 
at  home."2  It  must  not  be  concluded  from  this,  however,  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  indifferent  to  the  stage.  On  the  contrary,  "he 
liked  to  go  to  the  theater.  It  gave  him  an  hour  or  two  of 
freedom  from  care  and  worry."3 

A  remarkable  interview,  held  apparently  in  1863,  with  the 
actor  McDonough,  is  reported  by  the  Hon.  W.  D.  Kelley.  After 
some  preliminary  talk,  Mr.  Lincoln  began  the  discussion  as 
follows :  " '  I  am  very  glad  to  meet  you,  Mr.  McDonough,  .  .  . 
for  I  want  you  to  tell  me  something  about  Shakespeare's  plays 
as  they  are  constructed  for  the  stage.  You  can  imagine  that  I 
do  not  get  much  time  to  study  such  matters,  but  1  recently  had 
a  couple  of  talks  with  Hackett  ....  but  I  elicited  few 

'Carpenter,  49-52.     2Scribner's  Monthly,   XV.,  675. 
'Scribner's  Monthly,  XV.,  675. 

[22] 


23 

satisfactory  replies,  though  I  probed  him  with  a  good  many  ques 
tions  .  .  .  Hackett's  lack  of  information  impressed  me  with 
a  doubt  as  to  whether  he  had  ever  studied  Shakespeare's  text, 
or  had  not  been  content  with  the  acting  edition  of  his  plays.' 
He  arose,  went  to  a  shelf  not  far  from  his  table,  and  having 
taken  down  a  well-thumbed  volume  of  the  Plays  of  Shakes 
peare,  and  having  turned  to  Henry  VI  [IV]  and  read  with  fine 
discrimination  an  extended  passage,  said,  '  Mr.  McDonough,  can 
you  tell  me  why  those  lines  are  omitted  from  the  acting  play  ? 
There  is  nothing  I  have  read  in  Shakespeare,  certainly  nothing 
in  Henry  VI  or  the  Merry  Wives  .of  Windsor,  that  surpasses 
its  wit  and  humor'.  " 

Then  turning  to  a  clergyman  who  was  present,  Mr.  Lincoln 
said  :  " '  From  your  calling  it  is  probable  you  do  not  know 
that  the  acting  plays  which  people  crowd  to  hear  are  not 
always  those  planned  by  their  reputed  authors.  Thus,  take  the 
stage  edition  of  Richard  III.  It  opens  with  a  passage  from 
Henry  VI,  after  which  come  portions  of  Richard  III,  then 
another  scene  from  Henry  VI,  and  the  finest  soliloquy  in  the 
play,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  frequency  with  which  it  is 
heard  in  amateur  exhibitions,  was  never  seen  by  Shakespeare 
but  was  written,  was  it  not,  Mr.  McDonough,  after  his  death, 
by  Colley  Gibber?'"1 

In  illustration  of  the  relation  that  Lincoln's  study  of 
Shakspere  bore  to  his  own  life,  we  may  quote  a  passage  from 
Carpenter,  which  is  also  given  in  slightly  different  language  by 
Noah  Brooks:  "In  the  spring  of  1862,  the  President  spent 
several  days  at  Fortress  Monroe  .  .  .  He  bore  with  him 
constantly  the  burden  of  public  affairs.  His  favorite  diversion 
was  reading  Shakspeare.  One  day  as  he  sat  reading  alone,  he 
called  to  his  aide  in  the  adjoining  room,  l  You  have  been  writing 
long  enough,  Colonel ;  come  in  here ;  I  want  to  read  you  a  pass 
age  in  "  Hamlet ".'  He  read  the  discussion  on  ambition  between 
Hamlet  and  his  courtiers,  and  the  soliloquy,  in  which  con 
science  debates  of  a  future  state.  This  was  followed  by  a 

'Reminiscences,  2615-267.    The  speech  beginning,  "  Richard's  himself  again." 

'    [23] 


24 

passage  from  'Macbeth'.  Then  opening  to  'King  John',  he 
read  from  the  third  act  the  passage  in  which  Constance  bewails 
her  imprisoned  lost  boy  : 

Closing  the  book,  and  recalling  the  words,— 

"  'And,  father  cardinal,  I  have  heard  you  say 
That  we  shall  see  and  know  our  friends  in  heaven: 
If  that  be  true,  I  shall  see  my  boy  again '."- 

Mr.  Lincoln  said:  'Colonel,  did  you  ever  dream  of  a  lost  friend, 
and  feeling  that  you  were  holding  sweet  communion  with  that 
friend,  and  yet  have  a  sad  consciousness  that  it  was  not  a 
reality  ? — Just  so  I  dream  of  my  boy  Willie.'  Overcome  with 
emotion,  he  dropped  his  head  on  the  table,  and  sobbed  aloud."1 
Another  illustration  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal  application 
of  his  Shakspere  reading  is  given  by  Arnold  in  the  follow 
ing  :  "  Mr.  Lincoln  once  said :  '  I  have  all  my  life  been  a 
fatalist.  What  is  to  be  will  be,  or  rather,  I  have  found  all  my 
life  as  Hamlet  says  : 

"  There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will."2 

The  most  interesting  account  of  the  famous  trip  up  the 
Potomac  of  April  9th,  1865,  when  the  President  delighted  his 
companions  by  reading  to  them  from  Shakspere,  is  that  of 
the  Marquis  de  Chambrun.  "On  Sunday,  April  9th,  we  were 
steaming  up  the  Potomac.  That  whole  day  the  conversation 
dwelt  upon  literary  subjects.  Mr.  Lincoln  read  to  us  for  several 
hours  passages  taken  from  Skakespeare.  Most  of  these  were 
from  '  Macbeth,'  and  in  particular,  the  verses  which  follow  Dun 
can's  assassination.  I  cannot  recall  this  reading  without  being 
awed  at  the  remembrance,  when  Macbeth  becomes  king  after 
the  murder  of  Duncan,  he  falls  a  prey  to  the  most  horrible 
torments  of  mind. 

"  Either  because  he  was  struck  by  the  weird  beauty  of  these 
verses,  or  from  a  vague  presentiment  coming  over  him,  Mr. 
Lincoln  paused  here  while  reading  and  began  to  explain  to  us 

Carpenter,    115-116.  2Arnold,    81.      These    lines    from   Hamlet   were  fre 

quently  quoted  by  Lincoln  in  conversation.     Herndon,  436. 

[24] 


25 

how  true  a  description  of  the  murderer  that  one  was  ;  when,  the 
dark  deed  achieved,  its  tortured  perpetrator  came  to  envy  the 
sleep  of  his  victim ;  and  he  read  over  again  the  same  scene."1 

The  specimens  of  Lincoln's  criticisms  that  have  been  sub 
mitted  justify  fully  the  remark  of  the  writer  just  quoted : 
"His  judgment  evinces  that  sort  of  delicacy  and  soundness  of 
taste  that  would  honor  a  great  literary  critic. "* 

In  considering  Lincoln's  imagination,  to  which  we  may 
properly  pass  from  the  study  of  his  critical  powers,  we  are 
immediately  struck  by  its  frequent  homeliness,  the  material  for 
metaphor  and  simile  being  usually  taken  from  everyday  expe 
rience.  We  find  a  tendency,  too,  especially  in  the  letters,  to 
the  repeated  use  of  a  figurative  idea  in  connection  with  some 
important  subject.  After  the  manner  of  really  great  men, 
Lincoln  never  hesitated  'to  repeat  himself,  and  just  as  we  shall 
find  striking  phrases  repeated  in  orations,  so  we  find  striking 
metaphors  and  similes  repeated  in  letters  and  in  conversation. 
This  tendency  to  repetition  is  especially  marked  in  the  war 
correspondence,  where  it  may  almost  be  said  to  be  the  rule. 
The  favorite  ideas  of  comparison  are  taken  from  card  playing, 
the  ship  of  state  and  eggs.  As  examples  of  the  first  we  may 
take  the  following :  "  You  must  not  expect  me  to  give  up  this 
government  without  playing  my  last  card,"*  the  last  card 
being  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  "I  shall  not  surrender 
this  game  leaving  any  available  card  unplayed."4  "  It  had  got 
to  be  midsummer,  1862 :  Things  had  gone  from  bad  to 
worse,  until  I  felt  that  we  had  reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on 
the  plan  of  operations  we  had  been  pursuing ;  that  we  had 
about  played  our  last  card,  and  must  change  our  tactics,  or  lose 
the  game!"5  All  these  examples  belong  to  the  same  period 
and  refer  to  the  same  subject. 

The  figure  of  the  ship  of  state  was  most  freely  used  in  the 

^cribner's  Magazine,  XIII.,  34.   The  other  accounts  agree  closely  with  the  above^ 

2Ibid,  32. 

'Reminiscences,  125.     Quoted  by  C.  S.  Boutwell  from  an  unpublished   letter. 

4Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  215,  Letter  of  July  26,  1862. 

•'Carpenter,  20.     Conversation,  1864. 

[25] 


26 

series  of  addresses  delivered  on  the  journey  to  Washington,  in 
1861.  While  it  is  somewhat  varied  in  details  the  underlying 
thought  is  always  the  same.  The  figure  had  already  occurred 
in  the  Peoria  Speech  of  October  16th,  1854  :  "  You  stand  on  mid 
dle  ground  and  hold  the  ship  level  and  steady,"  and  "the  very 
figure-head  of  the  ship  of  state."1  From  among  the  half-dozen 
cases  the  following  may  be  cited :  "  If  we  do  not  make  com 
mon  cause  to  save  the  good  old  ship  of  the  Union  on  this 
voyage,  nobody  will  have  a  chance  to  pilot  her  on  another 
voyage."5  "I  understand  that  the  ship  is  made  for  the  carry 
ing  and  preservation  of  the  cargo ;  and  so  long  as  the  ship  is 
safe  with  the  cargo,  it  shall  not  be  abandoned.  This  Union 
shall  never  be  abandoned,  unless  the  possibility  of  its  existence 
shall  cease  to  exist  without  the  necessity  of  throwing  passen 
gers  and  cargo  overboard."3  The  latter  part  of  the  second 
figure  was  a  favorite  one  with  Lincoln  in  his  later  familiar  talk 
and  correspondence.  Speaking  of  Union  men  in  the  South? 
he  said  in  a  letter :  "  They  are  to  touch  neither  a  sail  nor  a 
pump,  but  to  be  merely  passengers  —  deadheads  at  that — to  be 
carried  snug  and  dry  throughout  the  storm,  and  safely  landed 
right  side  up."  Lincoln's  use  of  this  time-honored  metaphor  is 
not  oratorical,  after  the  manner  of  the  Fourth  of  July  speaker, 
but  purely  illustrative,  and  as  it  exactly  serves  his  purpose  he 
uses  it  with  a  sublime  indifference  to  its  familiarity. 

In  the  same  spirit  he  does  not  hesitate  to  introduce  in  state 
papers  and  private  correspondence  alike  the  homeliest  kind  of 
comparisons.  Thus,  in  the  Greeley  Letter  of  August  23rd,  1862, 
which  was  really  not  a  letter  but  a  formal  statement  of  princi 
ples  to  the  public  through  Mr.  Greeley,  the  figure  of  broken 
eggs  occurred  in  the  original  draft.  "  The  omitted  passage  — 
*  Broken  eggs  can  never  be  mended,  and  the  longer  the  break 
ing  proceeds  the  more  will  be  broken' — was  erased,  with  some 
reluctance,  by  the  President,  on  the  representation,  made  to 
him  by  the  editors,  that  it  seemed  somewhat  exceptionable,  on 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  I.,  202  and  293. 
2Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  I.,  681.     3Ibid,  688. 

[26] 


27 

rhetorical  grounds,  in  a  paper  of  such  dignity."1  In  a  letter  of 
November  29th,  1862,  Lincoln  varies  the  figure :  "  I  should 
merely  furnish  a  nestful  of  eggs  for  hatching  new  disputes."2 

In  his  first  message  to  Congress  the  President  used  the 
expression  :  "  With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated,  they  have  been 
drugging  the  public  mind  of  their  section  for  more  than  thirty 
years."  To  this  the  government  printer  took  exception  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  an  '  undignified  expression '.  Lincoln's  reply 
deserves  special  mention  as  helping  to  explain  his  preference 
for  homely  comparisons.  "  That  word  expresses  precisely  my 
idea,  and  I  am  not  going  to  change  it.  The  time  will  never 
come  in  this  country  when  the  people  won't  know  exactly 
what  sugar-coated  means  !" 3  Lincoln's  figures  almost  always 
serve  a  useful  purpose  in  making  an  obscure  thought  clear  and 
a  clear  thought  still  clearer. 

Another  'undignified '  figure,  which  was  repeated  later,  is  the 
following  from  the  l  Lost  Speech':  "Free-state  men  come  trail 
ing  back  to  the  dishonored  North,  like  whipped  dogs  with  'their 
tails  between  their  legs."4  In  a  letter  of  June,  1862,  to  General 
McClellan,  the  President  made  use  of  the  following  vivid  but 
inappropriate  figure  :  "  Shields's  division  has  got  so  terribly  out 
of  shape,  out  at  elbows,  and  out  at  toes,  that  it  wrill  require  a 
long  time  to  get  it  in  again."5  And  in  a  telegram  of  the  same 
year  he  said :  "  You  must  know  that  major-generalships  in 
the  regular  army  are  not  as  plenty  as  blackberries."6  Exam 
ples  of  this  class  of  figures  might  be  added  in  large  numbers, 
but  those  that  have  been  given  sufficiently  illustrate  this  side 
of  Lincoln's  imagination. 

Occasionally  wholly  commonplace  comparisons  are  used, 
as  in  the  following  cases  :  "It  [slavery]  gathers  strength  like 
a  rolling  snowball,  by  its  own  infamy."7  "Like  the  great  Jug 
gernaut — I  think  that  is  the  name — the  great  idol,  it  [slave 

Reminiscences,  626.  Reported  by  J.  C.  Welling,  one  of  the  editors  of  the 
National  Intelligencer,  in  which  the  Greeley  Letter  was  originally  published. 

2Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  260.       3Carpenter,  126. 

4Tarbell,  II.,  312.     5Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works.  II.,  181.     6Ibid,  II.,  144. 

7Tarbell,  II.,  315. 

[27] 


28 

power]  crushes  everything  that  comes  in  its  way."      But  the 
number  of   these    is   very  .small.      Lincoln's    figures   like  his 
other  utterances  are  strongly  marked  by  the  individuality  of 
the  speaker. 

Many  of  Lincoln's  similes  and  metaphors  are,  indeed,  of 
the  greatest  beauty  and  force.  Even  in  the  most  informal 
letter  he  occasionally  strikes  off  a  figure  of  marked  character. 
One  of  the  best  of  these  comparisons  occurs  in  a  telegram.  In 
a  long  dispatch  to  General  Hooker  the  President  wrote  :  "  In 
one  word,  I  would  not  take  any  risk  of  being  entangled  upon 
the  river,  like  an  ox  jumped  half  over  the  fence  and  liable  to  be 
torn  by  dogs  front  and  rear  without  a  fair  chance  to  gore  one 
way  or  kick  the  other."2  And  in  a  later  telegram  to  the  same 
general :  "If  the  head  of  Lee's  army  is  at  Martinsburg  and 
the  tail  of  it  on  the  plank  road  between  Fredericksburg  and 
Chancellorsville,  the  animal  must  be  very  slim  somewhere. 
Could  you  not  break  him  ? ";  A  letter  to  E.  B.  Washburne  in 
1860  closes  with  the  following  simple  but  forcible  simile:  "  On 
that  point  hold  firm,  as  with  a  chain  of  steel."4 

In  the  Bloomington  Speech  is  found  a  skilful  adaptation  of 
the  familiar  saying  "  The  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword  "  in 
"  The  ballot  is  stronger  than  the  bullet."  In  Notes  for  Speeches 
from  1858  the  figure  is  varied  thus:  "To  give  the  victory  to 
the  right,  not  bloody  bullets,  but  peaceful  ballots  only  are  nec 
essary."5  Finally,  in  the  first  message  to  Congress  the  thought 
occurs  again  :  "It  is  now  for  them  [the  people]  to  demonstrate 
to  the  world  that  those  who  can  fairly  carry  an  election  can 
also  suppress  a  rebellion ;  that  ballots  are  the  rightful  and 
peaceful  successors  of  bullets  ;  and  that  when  ballots  have 
fairly  and  constitutionally  decided,  there  can  be  no  successful 
appeal  back  to  bullets ;  that  there  can  be  no  successful 
appeal,  except  to  ballots  .themselves,  at  succeeding  elections."6 
In  the  Peoria  Speech  of  1854  occurs  a  passage  that  suggests 
Burke :  "Our  republican  robe  is  soiled* and  trailed  in  the  dust. 

Barbell,  II.,  369.    2Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  344. 
3Ibid,  II.,  352.    4Ibid,  I.,  658.    5Ibid,  I.,  427.    °Ibid,  II.,  65. 

[28] 


29 

Let  us  repurify  it.  Let  us  turn  and  wash  it  white  in  the  spirit 
if  not  the  blood  of  the  Revolution."  On  the  succeeding  page 
of  the  same  speech  simile  is  finely  combined  with  suggested 
quotation :  "  Like  the  '  bloody  hand ',  you  may  wash  it  and 
wash  it,  the  red  witness  of  guilt  still  sticks  and  stares  horribly 
at  you."  The  reference  in  the  Conkling  Letter  to  the  Missis 
sippi  Eiver  is  not  a  little  in  the  manner  of  Webster :  "  The 
signs  look  better.  The  Father  of  Waters  again  goes  unvexed  to 
the  sea." ' 

According  to  Brooks,  "Lincoln  was  a  close  observer  of 
nature,  as  wrell  as  of  men.  Into  the  wonderful  alembic  of  his 
mind  everything  was  received,  to  be  brought  forth  again  as 
aphorism,  parable,  or  trenchant  saying.  In  woodcraft,  for  ex 
ample,  he  was  deeply  skilled,  his  habit  of  close  observation 
leading  him  to  detect  curious  facts  which  escaped  the  notice 
of  most  men.  Riding  through  a  wood  in  Virginia,  he  observed 
a  vine  which  wrapped  a  tree  in  its  luxuriant  growth.  '  Yes,' 
he  said,  '  that  is  very  beautiful ;  but  that  vine  is  like  certain 
habits  of  men  :  it  decorates  the  ruin  that  it  makes '  .  .  .  The 
very  next  day,  somebody  was  discussing  with  him  the  differ 
ence  between  character  and  reputation,  when  he  said, — with  a 
look  at  me,  as  if  to  remind  of  what  he  had  been  talking  about 
the  day  before, — i  perhaps  a  man's  character  was  like  a  tree, 
and  his  reputation  like  its  shadow:  the  shadow  is  what  we 
think  of  it ;  the  tree  is  the  real  thing.'  "2 

Carpenter,  quoting  from  an  article  published  in  the  San 
Francisco  Bulletin,  gives  similar  testimony.  The  President 
was  visiting  the  Soldiers'  Home  with  a  party,  when  a  dispute 
arose  as  to  whether  a  bit  of  green  was  cedar  or  spruce.  " '  Let 
me  discourse  on  a  theme  I  understand,'  said  the  President,  '  I 
know  all  about  trees  in  right  of  being  a  backwoodsman.  I  '11 
show  you  the  difference  between  spruce,  pine,  and  cedar,  and 
this  shred  of  green,  which  is  neither  one  nor  the  other,  but  a 
kind  of  illegitimate  cypress.'  He  then  proceeded  to  gather 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  398. 
2Scribner's  Monthly,  XVI 1 1.,  586. 

[29] 


30 

specimens  of  each,  and  explain  the  distinctive  formation  of 
foliage  belonging  to  every  species.  'Trees,'  he  said,  'are  as 
deceptive  in  their  likeness  to  one  another  as  are  certain  classes 
of  men,  amongst  whom  none  but  a  physiognomist's  eye  can 
detect  dissimilar  moral  features  until  events  have  developed 
them.'"1  It  is  significant  that  both  these  nature  comparisons 
are  based  on  woodcraft.2 

In  spite  of  this  strong  evidence  of  Lincoln's  love  and  close 
observation  of  nature,  few  instances  of  true  nature  compar 
isons  were  noted  in  his  writings,  and  none  of  these  suggest  the 
poetical  coloring  shown  in  the  quotations  just  given.  It  is 
possible  that  Lincoln's  nature  comparisons  were,  like  his 
stories,  confined  mainly  to  conversation,  and  that  they  were 
suggested,  as  in  those  instances,  by  the  sight  of  the  natural 
objects. 

A  collection  of  notes  for  a  lecture  on  Niagara  Falls  fur- 
ishes  the  most  important  written  testimony  to  Lincoln's  love 
of  nature  and  his  habit  of  associating  natural  phenomena  with 
the  affairs  of  life.  After  commenting  on  the  purely  physical 
characteristics  of  the  Falls,  he  continues  :  "  The  mere  physical 
of  Niagara  Falls  is  only  this.  Yet  this  is  really  a  very  small 
part  of  that  world's  wonder.  Its  power  to  excite  reflection  and 
emotion  is  its  great  charm.  .  .  .  But  still  there  is  more.  It 
calls  up  the  indefinite  past.  When  Columbus  first  sought  this 
continent — when  Christ  suffered  on  the  cross — when  Moses  led 
Israel  through  the  Ked  Sea — nay,  even  when  Adam  first  came 
from  the  hand  of  his  Maker:  then,  as  now,  Niagara  was  roaring 
here.  The  eyes  of  that  species  of  extinct  giants  whose  bones 
fill  the  mounds  of  America  have  gazed  on  Niagara,  as  ours 
do  now.  Contemporary  with  the  first  race  of  men,  and  older 
than  the  first  man,  Niagara  is  strong  and  fresh  today  as  ten 
thousand  years  ago.  The  Mammoth  and  Mastodon,  so  long 
dead  that  fragments  of  their  monstrous  bones  alone  testify 

Carpenter,  224-5. 

'-Judge  J.  O.  Cunningham,  of  Urbana,  Illinois,  has  informed  the  writer  that 
Mr.  Lincoln,  while  in  Urbana  on  the  Circuit,  loved  to  take  long  walks  in  the  woods 
to  the  northeast  of  the  town. 

[30] 


31 

that  they  ever  lived,  have  gazed  on  Niagara — in  that  long,  long 
time  never  still  for  a  moment  [never  dried],  never  froze,  never 
slept,  never  rested."1 

The  quotation  is  given  at  such  length  because  of  its 
curious  connection  with  a  passage  in  Herndon.  The  contra 
diction  between  Lincoln's  statement  to  Herndon  and  the  auto 
graph  record  of  his  real  impressions  shows  clearly  that  Lincoln 
did  not  always  express  himself  fully  to  his  partner.  It  serves 
to  illustrate  the  truth  of  Herndon's  estimate  of  Lincoln's 
character :  "  He  never  revealed  himself  entirely  to  any  one 
man,  and  therefore  he  will  always  to  a  certain  extent  remain 
enveloped  in  doubt.  Even  those  who  were  with  him  through 
long  years  of  hard  study  and  under  constantly  varying  circum 
stances  can  hardly  say  they  knew  him  through  and  through." 2 

The  passage  in  Herndon  is  as  follows  :  " '  What ',  I  en 
quired,  '  made  the  deepest  impression  on  you  when  you  stood 
in  the  presence  of  the  great  natural  wonder  ? '  I  shall  never 
forget  his  answer,  because  it  in  a  very  characteristic  way  illus 
trates  how  he  looked  at  everything.  '  The  thing  that  struck 
me  most  forcibly  when  I  saw  the  Falls,'  he  responded,  '  was, 
where  in  the  world  did  all  that  water  come  from  ? '  He  had 
no  eye  for  the  magnificence  and  grandeur  of  the  scene,  for  the 
rapids,  the  mist,  the  angry  waters,  and  the  roar  of  the  whirl 
pool,  but  his  mind,  working  in  its  accustomed  channel,  heedless 
of  beauty  or  awe,  followed  irresistibly  back  to  the  first  cause. ": 

From  an  early  age  Lincoln  showed  a  deep  interest  in 
words.  Speaking  of  his  boyhood,  Mcolay  and  Hay  state  :  "  He 
would  sit  in  the  twilight  and  read  a  dictionary  as  long  as  he 
could  see."4  That  this  study  of  words  was  a  part  of  his  severe 
course  of  self-culture  is  clearly  brought  out  by  the  following 
passage :  "In  the  search  for  words  Mr.  Lincoln  was  often  at  a 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  I.,  162. 

2Herndon,  585. 

3Herndon,  297.  It  is  possible  that  Lincoln's  matter  of  fact  statement  was  pro 
voked  by  the  florid  description  given  just  before  by  his  companion.  There  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  his  written  account. 

4Nicolay  &  Hay,  Life,  I.,  35. 

[30 


32 

loss.  He  was  often  perplexed  to  give  proper  expression  to  his 
ideas  ;  first,  because  he  was  not  master  of  the  English  language ; 
and  secondly,  because  there  were,  in  the  vast  store  of  words, 
so  few  that  contained  the  exact  coloring,  power  and  shape  of 
his  ideas." l 

The  following  valuable  statement  of  Lincoln's  difficulty  in 
finding  suitable  words  to  express  his  exact  meaning  is  reported 
by  Albert  B.  Chandler,  who  during  the  war  was  connected  with 
the  Military  Telegraph  Office,  at  Washington.  After  describing 
the  President's  manner  of  writing  he  tells  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
read  to  him  what  he  had  just  written.  "  During  this  reading 
he  stopped  occasionally  to  remark  upon  the  subject  of  his  read 
ing — a  detailed  description  of  a  battle— and  one  of  his  remarks, 
I  remember,  was  upon  the  meagreness  of  adjectives  in  the  lan 
guage  to  express  the  different  degrees  of  feeling  and  action."2 

Still  more  important  testimony  in  this  direction  is  fur 
nished  by  the  report  of  a  conversation  between  the  Rev.  J.  P. 
Gulliver  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  published  in  the  New  York  Inde 
pendent  of  Sept.  1st,  1864,  and  reprinted  by  Carpenter.  In 
answer  to  a  question  by  Mr.  Gulliver  as  to  his  unusual  power  of 
'putting  things',  Mr.  Lincoln  replied:  "I  can  say  this,  that 
among  my  earliest  recollections  I  remember  how,  when  a  mere 
child,  I  used  to  get  irritated  when  anybody  talked  to  me  in  a 
way  I  could  not  understand.  I  don't  think  I  ever  got  angry  at 
anything  else  in  my  life.  But  that  always  disturbed  my  temper, 
and  has  ever  since.  1  can  remember  going  to  my  little  bed 
room,  after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening  with  my 
father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the  night  walking  up 
and  down,  and  trying  to  make  out  what  was  the  exact  mean 
ing  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings.  I  could  not  sleep, 
though  I  often  tried  to,  when  1  got  on  such  a  hunt  after  an 
idea,  until  1  had  caught  it ;  and  when  I  thought  I  had  got  it.  I 
wras  not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over,  until  I 
had  put  it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  1  thought,  for  any  boy 

'Herndon,  592. 
2Ward,  223. 

[32] 


38 

I  knew  to  comprehend.  This  was  a  kind  of  passion  with  me, 
and  it  has  stuck  by  me.  .  .  .  Perhaps  that  accounts  for  the 
characteristic  you  observe  in  my  speeches,  though  I  never  put 

the  two  things  together  before But  your  question 

reminds  me  of  a  bit  of  education  I  had,  which  I  am  bound  in 
honesty  to  mention.  In  the  course  of  my  law-reading,  I  con 
stantly  came  upon  the  word  demonstrate.  I  thought  at  first 
that  I  understood  its  meaning,  but  soon  became  satisfied  that  I 
did  not.  I  said  to  myself,  '  What  do  I  mean  when  I  demonstrate 
more  than  when  I  reason  or  prove  ?  How  does  demonstration 
differ  from  any  other  proof  ?  I  consulted  Webster7 s  Dictionary. 
That  told  of  'certain  proof,  'proof  beyond  the  possibility  of 
doubt;'  but  I  could  form  no  idea  what  sort  of  proof  that  was. 
.  .  .  I  consulted  all  the  dictionaries  and  books  of  reference 
I  could  find,  but  with  no  better  results.  You  might  as  well  have 
defined  blue  to  a  blind  man.  At  last  I  said,  '  Lincoln,  you  can 
never  make  a  lawyer  if  you  do  not  understand  what  demonstrate 
means ;'  and  I  left  my  situation  in  Springfield,  went  home  to 
my  father's  house,  and  stayed  there  till  I  could  give  any  prop 
osition  in  the  six  books  of  Euclid  at  sight.  I  then  found  out 
what  'demonstrate'  means,  and  went  back  to  my  law-studies."1 
But  just  as  Lincoln's  reading  afforded  him  pleasure  as  wrell 
as  profit,  so  his  study  of  words  was  not  pursued  with  sole  ref 
erence  to  its  aiding  him  in  writing  and  speaking.  Noah  Brooks, 
in  his  account  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  meeting  with  Prof.  Agassiz  in 
the  winter  of  1864,  relates  :  "  The  visitors  were  shown  in,  the 
President  first  whispering,  '  Now  sit  still  and  see  what  we  can 
pick  up  that 's  new.'  .  .  .  The  President  said,  '  I  never  knew 
how  to  properly  pronounce  your  name ;  won't  you  give  me  a 
little  lesson  at  that  ? '  Then  he  asked  if  it  were  of  French  or 
Swiss  origin,  to  which  the  professor  replied  that  it  was  partly 
of  each.  {That  led  to  a  discussion  of  different  languages,  the 
President  speaking  of  several  words  in  different  languages 

^Carpenter,  312-314.  This  story  is  not  accurate.  Lincoln  was  living  at  New 
Salem,  not  Springfield,  when  he  began  the  study  of  law,  and  he  relates  in  the  Auto 
biography  that  he  studied  Euclid  after  leaving  Congress.  There  is  no  reason,  how 
ever,  to  doubt  the  truth  of  the  main  statement,  with  which  we  are  concerned. 

[33] 


34 

which  had  the  same  root  as  similar  words  in  our  own  tongue  ; 
then  he  illustrated  that  by  one  or  two  anecdotes,  one  of  which 
he  borrowed  from  Hood's  'Up  the  Rhine'.  But  he  soon  re 
turned  to  his  gentle  cross-examination  of  Agassiz,  and  found 
out  how  the  Professor  studied,  how  he  composed,  and  how  he 
delivered  his  lectures."1 

Although  Lincoln's  biographers  give  ample  evidence  of  his 
frequent  use  of  anecdotes  to  illustrate  and  emphasize  his  mean 
ing  in  conversation  and  in  his  law  pleadings,  an  examination  of 
/  Lincoln's  writings  shows  a  comparatively  slight  use  of  them 
there.  Even  the  earlier  speeches  contain  but  few  stories,  and 
none  of  these  are  of  any  length.  In  the  case  of  the  Douglas 
Debates  it  is  possible  to  refer  this  to  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  speeches  were  delivered  and  Lincoln's  own  attitude. 
On  being  urged  by  his  friends  to  treat  the  subject  more  pop 
ularly,  Lincoln  answered  :  "  The  occasion  is  too  serious,  the 
issues  are  too  grave.  I  do  not  seek  applause,  or  to  amuse  the 
people,  but  to  convince  them."5  The  same  is  true  of  the 
Cooper  Institute  Address  of  two  years  later.  So,  too,  the 
character  of  the  presidential  addresses  is  such  as  to  preclude 
wholly  the  introduction  of  stories,  although  in  the  informal 
discussion  of  the  most  important  topics  the  President  frequently 
indulged  his  taste  for  anecdote.  It  seems  possible  also  that 
many  of  the  earlier  addresses  contained  stories  that  were  more 
fitted  for  the  'stump'  than  for  the  printed  page.  There  is 
certainly  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  gift  of  story-telling,  so 
dear  to  the  heart  of  the  frontiersman,  would  be  neglected  by  so 
skilful  a  speaker  as  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Although  Lincoln's  stories  have  but  little  direct  bearing  upon 
his  writing,  they  for  mso  intimate  a  part  of  his  mental  make-up 
that  they  deserve  at  least  passing  mention.  Several  authorities, 

'Harper,  XXXI. ,  223.  A  slightly  different  though  not  at  all  contradictory  ac 
count  is  given  by  Noah  Brooks  in  Scribner's  Monthly,  XV.,  678. 

2Arnold,  145.  This  attitude  had  already  begun  in  the  preliminary  discussion  of. 
1854.  "  Once  launched  upon  this  theme,  men  were  surprised  to  find  him  imbued 
with  an  unwonted  seriousness.  They  heard  from  his  lips  fewer  anecdotes  and  more 
history.  Careless  listeners,  who  came  to  laugh  at  his  jokes  were  held  by  the  strong 
current  of  his  reasoning."  Nicolay  &  Hay,  Life,  I.,  373. 

[34] 


35 

among  others  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  state  that  Lincoln  originated 
very  few  of  his  stories.  In  Mr.  Depew's  article  Mr.  Lincoln  is 
quoted  as  follows:  '"They  say  I  tell  a  great  many  stories  ;  I 
reckon  I  do,  but  I  have  found  in  the  course  of  a  long  experi 
ence  that  common  people  ' — and  repeating  it—'  common  people, 
take  them  as  they  run,  are  more  easily  influenced  and  informed 
through  the  medium  of  broad  illustration  than  in  any  other 
way,  and  as  to  what  the  hypercritical  few  may  think,  I  don't 
care.' '  Mr.  Lincoln  added :  '"I  have  originated  but  two 
stories  in  my  life,  but  I  tell  tolerably  well  other  people's 
stories.'"1 

"Turning  now  to  Lincoln's  writings  we  may  begin  with  the 
"if most  informal  class,  the  letters.  Herndon  states:  "In  the 
matter  of  letter-writing  he  could  never  distinguish  between 
one  of  a  business  nature  or  any  other  kind.  If  a  happy  thought 
struck  him  he  was  by  no  means  reluctant  to  use  it."2  We  have 
already  seen  that  Lincoln  frequently  introduced  striking  figures 
in  telegrams  to  generals  in  the  field,  and  throughout  the  cor 
respondence  Herndon's  statement  finds  ample  confirmation. 
That  Lincoln  could,  if  need  be,  distinguish  between  different 
classes  of  correspondence  is  shown  by  his  exquisite  tact  in  that 
most  difficult  class,  the  letter  of  condolence.  Unfortunately 
the  number  of  these  preserved  in  Nicolay  and  Hay  is  compar 
atively  small,  for  the  number  actually  written  during  the  Civil 
War  must  have  been  very  great.  Room  may  be  found  for  one 
example,  and  that  perhaps  the  most  beautiful. 

'k  EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 
WASHINGTON,  November  21,  1864. 
Mrs.  Bixby,  Boston,  Massachusetts. 

DEAR  MADAM:  I  have  been  shown  in  the  files  of  the  War  De 
partment  a  statement  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  Massachusetts  that 
you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons  who  have  died  gloriously  on  the  field 
of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and  fruitless  must  be  any  words  of  mine 

Reminiscences,  428.  Compare  Lincoln's  statement  to  Brooks  :  "  '  I  do  gen 
erally  remember  a  good  story  when  I  hear  it,  but  I  never  did  invent  anything 
original;  I  am  only  a  retail  dealer.'"  Harper,  XXXI.,  228. 

2Herndon,  313. 

[35] 


36 

which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you  from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so 
overwhelming-.  But  I  cannot  refrain  from  tendering-  to  you  the  con 
solation  that  may  be  found  in  the  thanks  of  the  Republic  they  died 
to  save.  I  pray  that  our  heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the  ang-uish 
of  your  bereavement,  and  leave  you  only  the  cherished  memory  of 
the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have 
laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 

Yours  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. m 

The  letters  of  the  early  period  of  Lincoln's  life  require  no 
special  comment.  Most  of  them  are  to  friends  and  relatives 
and  treat  of  ordinary  events.  Occasionally  they  anticipate  the 
terseness  of  the  later  letters,  as  in  this  specimen  from  1848  : 
"  In  law,  it  is  good  policy  to  never  plead  what  you  need  not, 
lest  you  oblige  yourself  to  prove  what  you  cannot."2  But  in 
the  earliest  letters  there  is  a  tendency  to  wordiness  and  to  long 
sentences  that  is  wholly  foreign  to  the  later  style. 

One  characteristic  of  the  letters  written  during  the  last 
four  years  of  Lincoln's  life  may  be  noted,  their  extreme  brev 
ity.  Few  of  those  printed  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Works 
exceed  a  quarter  of  a  page,  and  many  of  them  do  not  extend 
beyond  the  limits  that  many  correspondents  would  use  for 
expressions  of  formal  courtesy.  But  in  view  of  the  great  ex 
tent  and  variety  of  his  correspondence,  both  public  and  private, 
and  in  view  also  of  the  fact  that  "he  preferred  writing  his 
letters  with  his  own  hand,  making  copies  himself  frequently,"3 
this  is  not  strange. 

The  less  said  about  Lincoln's  early  poetical  efforts,  recorded 
by  the  frank  Herndon,  the  better.  They  are  not  only  rude  and 
unfinished,  but  they  give  no  promise  of  their  author's  later  style. 
The  following  poems,  however,  written  in  1844,  deserve  notice. 

aNicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  600.  The  letter  to  J.  C.  Conkling  has  received  the 
distinction  of  being  quoted  in  full  by  John  Earle,  Professor  of  Anglo-Saxon  at  the 
University  of  Oxford,  in  his  work  entitled  "English  Prose",  "as  a  good  specimen 
of  Nineteenth  Century  prose." 

2Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  I.,  112.  This  suggests  the  following  sentence  from 
the  Bloomington  Speech  :  "  But  we  must  not  promise  what  we  ought  not,  lest  we  be 
called  on  to  perform  what  we  cannot."  Tarbell,  II.,  307. 

3Harper,  XXXI.,  229. 

[36] 


37 

While  the  sentiments  are  not  especially  original  there  is  a 
decidedly  poetical  coloring  to  the  whole,  charged  as  it  is  with 
the  melancholy  natural  to  Lincoln  : 

I. 

"My  childhood's  home  I  see  again, 

And  sadden  with  the  view; 
And  still,  as  memory  crowds  my  brain, 
There  's  pleasure  in  it  too. 

O  memory  !  thou  midway  world 

'Twixt  earth  and  paradise, 
Where  thing's  decayed  and  loved  ones  lost 

In  dreamy  shadows  rise, 

And,  freed  from  all  that's  earthly  vile, 

Seem  hallowed,  pure,  and  bright, 
Like  scenes  in  some  enchanted  isle 

All  bathed  in  liquid  light. 

As  dusky  mountains  please  the  eye 

When  twilight  chases  day  ; 
As  bugle-notes  that,  passing  by, 

In  distance  die  away  ; 

As  leaving  some  grand  waterfall, 

We,  lingering,  list  its  roar  — 
So  memory  will  hallow  all 

We've  known,  but  know  no  more. 

Near  twenty  years  have  passed  away 

Since  here  I  bid  farewell 
To  woods  and  fields,  and  scenes  of  play, 

And  playmates  loved  so  well. 

Where  many  were,  but  few  remain 

Of  old  familiar  things  ; 
But  seeing  them,  to  mind  again 

The  lost  and  absent  brings. 

The  friends  I  left  that  parting  day, 

How  changed,  as  time  has  sped  ! 
Young  childhood  grown,  strong  manhood 

And  half  of  all  are  dead. 

[37] 


38 


I  hear  the  loved  survivors  tell 

How  nought  from  death  could  save, 

Till  every  sound  appears  a  knell, 
And  every  spot  a  grave. 

I  range  the  fields  with  pensive  tread , 
And  pace  the  hollow  rooms, 

And  feel  (companion  of  the  dead) 
I'm  living  in  the  tombs." 


II. 

"But  here's  an  object  more  of  dread 

Than  aught  the  grave  contains  — 
A  human  form  with  reason  fled, 
While  wretched  life  remains. 

When  terror  spread,  and  neighbors  ran 
Your  dangerous  strength  to  bind, 

And  soon,  a  howling,  crazy  man, 
Your  limbs  were  soon  confined  : 

How  then  you  strove  and  shrieked  aloud, 

Your  bones  and  sinews  bared  ; 
And  fiendish  on  the  gazing  crowd 

With  burning  eyeballs  glared  ; 

And  begged  and  swore,  and  wept  and  prayed,. 

With  maniac  laughter  joined  ; 
How  fearful  were  these  signs  displayed 

By  pangs  that  killed  the  mind ! 

And  when  at  length  the  drear  and  long 

Time  soothed  thy  fiercer  woes, 
How  plaintively  thy  mournful  song 

Upon  the  still  night  rose  ! 

I  've  heard  it  oft  as  if  I  dreamed, 

Far  distant,  sweet  and  lone, 
The  funeral  dirge  it  ever  seemed 

Of  reason  dead  and  gone. 

[38] 


39 

To  drink  its  strains  I  Ve  stole  away, 

All  stealthily  and  still, 
Kre  yet  the  rising1  god  of  day 

Had  streaked  the  eastern  hill. 

Air  held  her  breath  ;  trees  with  the  spell 

Seemed  sorrowing1  angels  round, 
Whose  swelling  tears  in  dewdrops  fell 

Upon  the  listening  ground. 

But  this  is  past,  and  naught  remains 

That  raised  thee  o'er  the  brute  ; 
Thy  piercing*  shrieks  and  soothing  strain 

Are  like  forever  mute. 

Now  fare  thee  well  !     More  thou  the  cause 

Than  subject  now  of  woe. 
All  mental  pang's  by  time's  kind  laws 

Hast  lost  the  power  to  know. 

O  death  !  thou  awe-inspiring-  prince 

That  keepst  the  world  in  fear, 
Why  dost  thou  tear  more  blest  ones  hence, 

And  leave  him  ling-ering-  here  ?"  * 

These  two  poems—  called  by  Lincoln  cantos  —  together  with 
a  third,  on  a  "Bear  Hunt",  were  apparently  published  anony 
mously  in  a  newspaper  in  1847.  Lincoln  is  not  known  to  have 
written  any  verse  after  this  time. 

According  to  Herndon,  during  the  last  years  of  his  life  in 
Springfield,  Lincoln  occasionally  wrote  political  editorials.2 
But  he  never  became  a  journalist  in  the  proper  sense  of  the 
word.  His  editorial  writing,  like  Herndon's,  was  for  the  prac 
tical  purpose  of  aiding  his  party. 

Closely  connected  with  the  speeches  but  forming  a  class  by 
themselves  are  the  lectures  delivered  by  Lincoln  during  the 


&  Hay,  Works,  I.,  86-88.  The  poems  were  enclosed  in  two  letters 
written  in  1846.  The  circumstances  under  which  they  were  composed  are  there 
related. 

-"  Anent  the  subject  of  editorial  writing  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  relate 
that  Lincoln  and  I  kept  on  furnishing  political  matter  of  many  varieties  for  the 
Springfield  Journal  until  1860."  Herndon,  369.  . 

[39] 


40 

middle  period  of  his  life.  If  we  exclude  the  Address  on  Tem 
perance,  which  is  more  of  a  speech  than  a  lecture,  the  only 
representative  of  this  class  that  has  been  preserved  is  that  on 
Inventions,  written  in  1859.  According  to  Nicolay  and  Hay,  it 
was  delivered  in  neighboring  towns  in  that  year  and  at  Spring 
field,  Illinois,  in  I860.1  Herndon  states  that  this  lecture  was 
given  at  three  different  towns  in  central  Illinois  during  the 
winter  of  1859,  "  but  it  was  so  commonplace,  and  met  with 
such  indifferent  success,  that  he  soon  dropped  it  altogether. 
Invitations  to  deliver  the  lecture  —  prompted,  no 
doubt  by  the  advertisement  given  him  in  the  contest  with 
Douglas  —  came  in  very  freely ;  but  beyond  the  three  at 
tempts  named,  he  declined  them  all."'  Lincoln  referred  to 
this  lecture  in  the  Agassiz  interview.3  A  reading  of  the  lecture, 
as  it  has  been  preserved',  tends  to  confirm  the  opinion  of  Lin 
coln's  friends  as  reported  by  Herndon.  It  shows  no  special 
originality  and  is  decidedly  lacking  in  literary  finish.  Even  its 
humor  is  not  of  a  high  order. 

Arnold  mentions  a  lecture  on  Burns,  and  besides  the  frag 
mentary  notes  for  a  lecture  on  Niagara  Falls,  which  have 
already  been  quoted  from  in  connection  with  Lincoln's  imag 
ination,  there  are  some  notes  for  a  law  lecture,  from  about 
July,  1850.4 

Finally  we  have  to  consider  that  class  of  writings  on  which 
Mr.  Lincoln's  claims  to  literary  distinction  rest,  the  oration. 
In  one  sense  it  is  perhaps  misleading  to  refer  to  the  great  mass 
of  Lincoln's  public  speaking  as  oratory.  With  the  exception 
of  the  Bloomington  Speech  of  1856,  the  Gettysburg  Address 
and  the  Second  Inaugural,  none  of  his  speeches  appeal  pri 
marily  to  the  feelings,  but  they  are  addressed  to  the  reasoning 
faculty,  with  only  a  slight  element  of  the  imaginative.  They 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  L,  522. 

2Herndon,  448-9.  In  a  foot  note  a  letter  from  Lincoln  is  given,  declining  an  in 
vitation  to  lecture  at  Galesburg  and  stating  :  "I  read  a  sort  of  lecture  to  three 
Different  audiences  during  the  last  month  and  this." 

3Harper,  XXXI.,  224.  "The  lecture  was  never  finished,  and  was  left  among  his 
4oose  papers  at  Springfield  when  he  came  to  Washington." 

4Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  I.,  162. 

[40] 


41 

are  argumentative  rather  than  persuasive,  suggesting  the 
lawyer  rather  than  the  orator,  and  the  lawyer  addressing  the 
Court  rather  than  pleading  with  the  jury.1  In  his  speeches, 
as  in  his  arguments  before  the  bar,  he  is  always  strictly  logical 
and  fair.  As  his  former  associate,  Leonard  Swett,  states  in  a 
letter  to  Herndon  of  1866  :  u  The  force  of  his  logic  was  in  con 
veying  to  the  minds  of  others  the  same  clear  and  thorough 
analysis  he  had  in  his  own,  and  if  his  own  mind  failed  to  be 
satisfied,  he  had  little  power  to  satisfy  anybody  else.  He  never 
made  a  sophistical  argument  in  his  life,  and  never  could  make 
one.'"  Lincoln  himself  said  of  his  manner  of  arguing,  "that  a 
peculiarity  of  his  own  life  from  his  earliest  manhood  has  been, 
that  he  habitually  studied  the  opposite  side  of  every  disputed 
question,  of  every  law  case,  of  every  political  issue,  more 
exhaustively,  if  possible,  than  his  OWTL  side.  He  said  that  the 
result  had  been,  that  in  all  his  practice  at  the  bar  he  had  never 
once  been  surprised  in  court  by  the  strength  of  his  adversary's 
case."?  This  habit,  which  proved  so  valuable  to  him  in  his  law 
practice,  was  used  with  equal  effect  in  political  debate  and  in 
his  later  more  finished  addresses. 

Lincoln's  first  speech  that  has  been  preserved  dates  from 
the  campaign  of  1832,  when  he  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate 
for  the  Illinois  Assembly.  In  spite  of,  or  rather,  largely  because 
of  its  rudeness  and  lack  of  finish,  it  is  of  sufficient  interest  to 
merit  a  place  in  the  Works.  It  is  of  special  value  when  com 
pared  to  the  circular  issued  by  Lincoln  a  short  time  before,  of 
which  Nicolay  and  Hay  say  :  "  This  is  almost  precisely  the 
style  of  his  later  years.  .  .  .  But  his  language  was,  at  twenty  - 
two,  as  it  was  thirty  years  later,  the  simple  and  manly  attire 


writer  is  indebted  to  Judge  J.  O.  Cunningham,  of  Urbana,  Illinois,  for  the 
following  interesting  note  :  During  the  campaign  of  1856  a  political  meeting  was 
held  near  Urbana,  in  a  grove,  which  contained  two  stands.  The  principal  speakers 
on  the  occasion  were  Owen  Lovejoy,  then  for  the  first  time  candidate  for  Congress, 
and  Mr.  Lincoln.  While  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  the  midst  of  his  argument,  some  one 
called  out  that  Owen  Lovejoy  had  begun  to  speak  at  the  other  stand.  Immediately 
half  the  audience  deserted  Mr.  Lincoln  and  hurried  over  to  hear  the  more  fiery 
speaker.  That  Mr.  Lincoln  could  be  eloquent  as  well  as  convincing  is  clearly  shown 
by  the  Bloomington  Speech  and  its  effect  upon  the  audience. 
-Herndon,  536.  3^chuyler  Colfax,  Reminiscences,  333. 

[41] 


42 

of  his  thought,  with  little  attempt  at  ornament  and  none  at 
disguise."  In  the  main  this  is  true,  but  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
how  much  of  this  circular  was  the  independent  work  of  Lin 
coln.3  The  speech,  if  it  he  correctly  reported,  shows  us  exactly 
how  Abraham  Lincoln  spoke  in  1832,  the  address  does  not  nec 
essarily  show  us  exactly  how  he  wrote  at  that  time.  The  state 
ment,  too,  that  "the  errors  of  grammar  and  construction  .  .  . 
remained  with  him  through  life,"  seems  to  be  slightly  exagger 
ated  in  view  of  the  style  of  the  Inaugurals  and  the  Gettysburg 
Address.  The  tendency  to  incorrect  expression  was  undoubtedly 
never  wholly  overcome. 

Although  Lincoln  made  many  speeches  in  the  years  imme 
diately  following  his  first  attempt  to  enter  public  life,  nothing 
is  recorded  by  Nicolay  and  Hay  until  1837,  when  he  delivered 
before  the  Young  Men's  Lyceum  in  Springfield  an  address  on 
4*  The  Perpetuation  of  our  Political  Institutions."  The  style  of 
this  address  is  in  marked  contrast  to  Lincoln's  later  manner, 
and  it  may  be  taken  as  representing  the  "  intermediate  time 
w^hen  he  sinned  in  the  direction  of  fine  writing."3  It  is  what 
might  be  expected  from  a  very  clever  young  man  of  strong 
imagination  but  limited  experience.  The  use  of  figures  is 

1Nicolay  &  Hay,  Life,  I.,  106.  The  address  itself  forms  the  first  specimen  of 
Lincoln's  writings  in  the  Works.  The  speech  given  by  Herndon,  104,  is  as  follows  : 
"  Fellow  Citizens,  I  presume  you  all  know  who  I  am.  I  am  humble  Abraham 
Lincoln.  I  have  been  solicited  by  many  friends  to  become  a  candidate  for  the.  Leg 
islature.  My  politics  are  short  and  sweet,  like  the  old  woman's  dance.  I  am  in 
favor  of  a  national  bank.  I  am  in  favor  of  the  internal  improvement  system  and  a 
high  protective  tariff.  These  are  my  sentiments  and  political  principles.'  If  elected 
I  shall  be  thankful  ;  if  not  it  will  be  all  the  same."  Herndon  adds  :  "  I  obtained 
this  speech  from  A.  Y.  Ellis,  who  in  1865  wrote  it  out."  Herndon  does  not  state 
whether  Mr.  Ellis  had  made  an  earlier  copy  of  the  speech  or  whether  he  trusted  to 
his  memory.  The  ambiguity  of  the  reference  is  the  probable  reason  why  this 
speech  is  omitted  by  Nicolay  and  Hay.  Its  accuracy  is  rendered  somewhat  doubtful 
by  the  fact  that  two  of  the  three  political  principles  mentioned  in  it,  the  national 
bank  and  the  high  protective  tariff,  are  not  stated  in  the  address,  while  several 
important  matters  mentioned  in  the  address  do  not  occur  in  the  speech.  The  two 
resemble  each  other  closely  in  the  conclusion. 

-"In  a  letter  dated  May  5,  1866,  James  McXamar  says  :  '  I  corrected  at  his 
request  some  of  the  grammatical  errors  in  his  first  address  to  the  voters  of  Sangamon 
County.'"  Herndon,  102. 

'Xicolay  &:  Hay,  Life,  I.,  106.  The  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  at  Springfield  in  January,  1837,  first  reprinted  by  Miss  Tarhell,  is  with 
out  ornament,  but  "it  shows  the  free  use  of  satire,  amounting  almost  to  personal 
abuse,  that  we  find  in  the  speech  on  President  Taylor's  veto.  Tarbell,  II.,  270. 

142} 


43 

excessive,  metaphor  and  interrogation  being  the  most  frequent. 
And  yet  there  are  many  strong,  one  or  two  almost  splendid 
passages,  the  latter  perhaps  influenced  by  Webster.  One  of 
these  passages  deserves  citation  as  an  example  of  a  comparison 
based  upon  a  natural  phenomenon.  "They  [these  histories] 
were  a  forest  of  giant  oaks ;  but  the  all-restless  hurricane  has 
swept  over  them,  and  left  only  here  and  there  a  lonely  trunk, 
despoiled  of  its  verdure,  shorn  of  its  foliage,  unshading  and 
unshaded,  to  murmur  in  a  few  more  gentle  breezes  and  to  com 
bat  with  its  mutilated  limbs  a  few  more  ruder  storms,  then  to 
sink  and  be  no  more.771  The  effect,  to  be  sure,  is  weakened  by 
the  introduction  of  a  new  figure  immediately  after,  but  we  are 
concerned  here,  not  with  the  speech  as  a  whole,  but  with  such 
elements  in  it  as  serve  to  connect  it  with  Lincoln's  later  efforts. 
The  most  striking  of  these  elements  is  found  in  the  closing 
sentence,  which  does  more  than  give  a  promise  of  the  later 
manner,  for  it  is  almost  wholly  in  that  manner:  "Upon  these 
let  the  proud  fabric  of  freedom  rest,  as  the  rock  of  its  basis; 
and  as  truly  as  has  been  said  of  the  only  greater  institution, 
'the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.' ? 

Two  years  later,  in  the  next  speech  recorded,  we  iind  the 
close  reasoning  and  clear  statement  by  which  almost  all  oj 
Lincoln's  political  addresses  from  that  time  on  are  character 
ized.  \^  The  use  of  a  rheton£al_closing  paragraph,  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  style  of  the  body  of  the  speech,  is  also  a  depar 
ture,  which  frequently  recurs.  The  figures  are  still  crowded 
and  complex,  but  their  effect  is  not  weakened  by  a  contin- 
uous  use  throughout  the  oration.  The  Temperance  Address  of 
February  22nd,  1842,  apparently  as  a  result  of  the  subject  and 
the  occasion,  shows  a  return  to  the  earlier  rhetorical  manner. 
The  closing  sentences,  however,  are  strong:  "To  add  bright 
ness  to  the  sun  or  glory  to  the  name  of  Washington  is  alike 
impossible.  Let  none  attempt  it.  In  solemn  awe  pronounce 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  I.,   14. 

-Ibid,  I.,  15.  It  is  characteristic  of  Lincoln's  method  that  this  quotation  is  used 
again  in  a  speech  delivered  in  1861.  Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  I.,  673.  "  The  gates 
of  hell  cannot  prevail  against  them." 

[43] 


44 

the  name,  and  in  its  naked  deathless  splendor  leave  it  shining 
on./ 

Tlie  next  period  in  Lincoln's  public  speaking  is  that  of  his 
'term  in  Congress,  1847-49,  the.  intervening  five  years  being 
represented  by  only  a  few  fragments.  The  first  speech,  of 
January  12th,  1848,  has  no  special  features  ;  it  is  a  plain  argu 
ment  on  the  question  at  issue,  unadorned  with  figures.  The 
speech  against  President  Taylor's  veto,  which  contains  the 
famous  attack  on  General  Cass,  is  characterized  by  a  sustained 
satire  and  humor  very  unusual  in  Lincoln's  public  utterances. 

The  Eulogy  on  Clay,  delivered  in  1852,  is  the  only  specimen 
of  -its  class  represented  and  a  reading  of  it  does  not  cause  regret 
at  its  solitary  position.  In  spite  of  some  fine  passages  the 
speech  as  a  whole  is  a  failure.  It  shows  a  lack  of  sympathy 
with  the  occasion,  though  not  with  the  subject.  Lincoln 
almost  seems  to  offer  an  apology  for  himself  when  he  says  of 
Henry  Clay  :  "  All  his  efforts  were  made  for  practical  effect. 
He  never  spoke  merely  to  be  heard.  He  never  delivered  a 
Fourth  of  July  oration,  or  a  eulogy  on  an  occasion  like  this."5 

To  the  period  from  1854,  wiien  he  first  met  Senator  Douglas 
in  debate,  to  February  27th,  1860,  when  he  delivered  his  great 
Cooper  Institute  Address,  belong  Mr.  Lincoln's  principal  contri 
butions  to  political  oratory  of  the  argumentative  kind.  Many 
of  these  speeches  have  never  been  reported,  but  this  loss  is  not 
very  great,  as  Lincoln  never  hesitated  to  repeat  himself,  and  in 
the  speeches  that  have  been  preserved  are  probably  contained 
all  the  main  thoughts  that  were  expressed  by  him. 

In  a  monograph  like  this  it  is  impossible  to  discuss  at  all 
in  detail  this  great  series  of  speeches.  With  the  political  prin 
ciples  involved  we  are  not  concerned.  The  question  of  popular 
sovereignty  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision  must  be  left  to  the 
historian  and  the  student  of  constitutional  law.  The  first 
speech,  that  at  Peoria  in  1854,  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
speeches  forming  the  debate  proper  of  four  years  later.  While 


&  Hay.  Works,  I.,  63. 
2Ibid,  I.,  171. 

[44] 


45 

the  first  half  is  confined  to  sober  statement  and  argument,  the 
second  half  is  decidedly  rhetorical,  containing  more  quotations 
than  any  other  speech  except  that  at  Bloomington  two  years 
later.  Such  figures  as  :  "  Will  not  the  first  drop  of  blood  so 
shed  be  the  real  knell  of  the  Union  ? ",  and  "  In  our  greedy 
chase  to  make  profit  of  the  negro,  let  us  beware  lest  we  '  cancel 
and  tear  in  pieces'  even  the  white  man's  charter  of  freedom", 
remind  us  of  the  period  of  fine  writing.  There  is  also  a  much 
freer  use  of  satire  than  appears  in  the  later  debates.  In  the 
speeches  of  1858  Mr.  Lincoln  confined  himself  almost  wholly 
to  the  actual  subject  under  discussion.  No  quotations,  with  the 
exception  of  some  few  references  to  the  Bible,  occur  arid  the 
number  of  figures  is  very  small.  It  has  already  been  stated  that 
in  these  debates  Lincoln  deliberately  avoided  the  use  of  amusing 
stories  and  other  means  of  appealing  to  the  crowd.  Apparently 
for  the  same  reason  he  omitted  all  mere  rhetorical  devices,  his 
aim  being  to  convince. 

Midway  between  the  Peoria  Speech  and  the  debates  is  an 
oration,  which  was  until  three  years  ago  known  as  the  Lost 
Speech.  It  was  delivered  at  Bloomington,  Illinois,  before  the 
State  Convention,  and  "  the  reporters  were  so  carried  away  by 
his  eloquence  that  they  forgot  to  take  notes  and  could  give  no 
reports  to  their  papers.  As  Lincoln  himself  refused  to  try  to 
write  it  out,  it  was  supposed^ to  have  been,  in  fact,  a  'lost 
speech'."  L  Fortunately  a  young  lawyer  in  the  audience  [Mr.  W. 
C.  Whitney]  preserved  sufficient  coolness  to  make  careful 
notes.  These  remained  unpublished  until  their  appearance  in 
McClure's  Magazine.2  It  is  evident  that  the  extremely  rhe 
torical  character  of  this  speech  is  in  the  main  the  result  of  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  prepared  and  delivered.  In 
his  other  political  speeches  Lincoln  was  addressing  opponents 
whom  he  wished  to  convince,  here  he  was  addressing  friends 
whom  he  wished  to  arouse.  The  Bloomington  Speech  is  perhaps 

'Tarbell,  I.,  296. 

2Judge  J.  O.  Cunningham,  who  heard  the  speech  and  to  whom  Mr.  Whitney 
referred  his  report  of  it,  believes  that,  while  the  report  in  the  main  is  correct,  certain 
phrases  are  omitted. 

[451 


46 

the  only  important  public  utterance  of  Lincoln's  that  opens 
with  an  appeal  to  the  emotions.  Unlike  other  speakers  he 
was  accustomed  to  plunge  right  into  his  serious  argument, 
leaving  the  emotional  treatment  to  the  close. 

The  Cooper  Institute  Speech  of  February  27th,  1860,  is  un 
doubtedly  Lincoln's  strongest  and  most  finished  political  effort. 
In  extent  of  research  and  in  the  rhetorical  skill  \vith  which 
the  arguments  are  presented  it  reaches  a  level  far  above  that 
previously  attained.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  Lincoln 
appeals  only  to  the  intelligence  of  his  hearers.  The  success  of 
the  speech  was  instantaneous.  In  the  words  of  the  New7  York 
Tribune  for  February  28th,  1860  :  "  No  man  ever  before  made 
such  an  impression  on  his  first  appeal  to  a  New  York  audi 
ence."1  The  speech  was  reprinted  in  pamphlet  form  and  "in 
the  Presidential  campaign  a  more  careful  edition  was  prepared 
and  circulated,  to  which  were  added  copious  notes  by  two 
members  of  the  committee.  Their  comment,  printed  in  the 
preface,  is  wrorth  quoting  as  showing  its  literary  value  under 
critical  analysis.  'No  one  wrho  has  not  actually  attempted  to 
verify  its  details  can  understand  the  patient  research  and  his 
torical  labor  which  it  embodies.  ...  A  single,  easy,  simple 
sentence  of  plain  Anglo-Saxon  words  contains  a  chapter  of 
history  that,  in  some  instances,  has  taken  days  of  labor  to 
verify,  and  which  must  have  cost  the  author  months  of  inves 
tigation  to  acquire."1 

The  principal  rhetorical  effect  used  is  the  frequent  repeti 
tion  of  this  sentence  quoted  from  one  of  Douglas'  speeches : 
"  Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as  well  [as  ,  and  even 
better,  than  we  do  now."  Portions  of  this  sentence  are  applied 
here  and  there,  where  they  will  have  the  greatest  effect.  The 
close  is  thoroughly  characteristic :  "  Let  us  have  faith  that 
right  makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  dare  to 
do  our  duty  as  \ve  understand  it." 

The  speech  of  farewell  to  his  old  Springh'eld  neighbors  is 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Life,  II.,  225. 

[46] 


47 

one  of  the  best  examples  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  simple  manner  and 
at  the  same  time  it  anticipates  the  solemn  organ-tone  of  the 
Gettysburg  Address  and  the  Second  Inaiiguyal.  While  it  does 
not  contain  a  single  figure  or  quotation  it  is  charged  with 
Biblical  suggestion,  which  is  far  more  significant  of  literary 
influence  than  direct  quotation. 

The  First  Inaugural  is  closely  connected  with  the  political 
speeches  that  immediately  precede  it.  In  the  concluding  sen 
tences,  however,  we  find  a  sudden  change  to  the  poetical 
manner.  The  last  paragraph,  the  most  beautiful  passage  in 
the  whole  address,  was  suggested  to  Mr.  Lincoln  by  Mr.  Sew- 
ard,  to  whom  the  paper  had  been  submitted  for  correction  and 
suggestion.1  Lincoln's  biographers  seem  to  do  Seward  an 
injustice  when  they  compare  his  rough  draft  to  the  finished 
treatment  in  the  address.  Had  Mr.  Seward  introduced  his 
beautiful  thought  in  one  of  his  own  orations  it  would  undoubt 
edly  have  appeared  in  as  fair  a  garb  as  that  in  which  Mr. 
Lincoln  presented  it. 

For  the  sake  of  readier  comparison  the  original  draft,  the 
suggestion  by  Mr.  Seward  and  the  final  form  used  by  the  Pres 
ident  in  closing  the  Inaugural,  are  given :  "  You  can  forbear 
the  assault  upon  it,  I  cannot  shrink  from  the  defense  of  it. 
With  you,  and  not  with  me,  is  the  solemn  question  of  '  shall  it 
be  peace  or  a  sword  ? ' ;  Then  Mr.  Se ward's  suggestion  :  "I 
close.  We  are  not,  we  must  not  be,  aliens  or  enemies,  but 
fellow-countrymen  and  brethren.  Although  passion  has 
strained  our  bonds  of  affection  too  harshly,  they  must  not,  I 
am  sure  they  will  not,  be  broken.  The  mystic  chords  which, 
proceeding  from  so  many  battle-fields  and  so  many  patriot 
graves,  pass  through  all  the  hearts  and  all  hearths  in  this  broad 
continent  of  ours,  will  yet  again  harmonize '  in  their  ancient 
music  when  breathed  upon  by  the  guardian  angel  of  the  nation." 
And  finally  :  "I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may 
have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection.  The 

''Nicolay  &  Hay,  Life,  III.,  327-344. 

f47] 


48 

mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battle-field 
and  patriot  grave,  to  every  living  heart  aud  hearthstone,  all 
over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union 
when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels 
of  our  nature." 1 

In  preparing  the  First  Inaugural  Mr.  Lincoln  used  the  fol 
lowing  books  :  "Henry  Clay's  great  speech  delivered  in  1850, 
Jackson's  proclamation  against  Nullification,  the  Constitution, 
.  .  .  and  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne."2 

Before  considering  the  other  two  great  presidential  ad 
dresses,  the  Gettysburg  and  the  Second  Inaugural,  we  may  glance 
at  an  inferior  class,  which  the  President  was  frequently  called 
upon  to  deliver,  the  answers  to  serenades.  It  cannot  be  claimed 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  succeeded  in  these  speeches,  which  call  for  a 
maximum  of  form  and  a  minimum  of  sense.  As  he  himself 
said  at  the  beginning  of  one  of  the  latest  of  these  :  "  I  believe 
I  shall  never  be  old  enough  to  speak  without  embarrassment 
when  I  have  nothing  to  talk  about."3  Brooks  states  that,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  of  the  earlier  ones,  all  these  informal 
addresses  were  read.  He  describes  one  such  occasion  and  gives 
the  President's  own  explanation  of  his  reason  for  using  man 
uscript  :  "  You  think  it  mighty  queer  that  an  old  stump 
speaker  like  myself  should  not  be  able  to  address  a  crowd 
like  this  outside  without  a  written  speech.  But  you  must 
remember  I  am,  in  a  certain  way,  talking  to  the  country,  and  I 
have  to  be  mighty  careful."*  All  the  replies  to  serenades  are 
short,  some  of  them  containing  not  more  than  half  a  dozen 
lines. 

Reference  should  also  be  made  to  the  messages  to  Congress 
and  to  the  various  proclamations  issued  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  has 
already  been  noted  in  another  connection  that  the  messages 
sometimes  contained  very  inappropriate  phrases.  They  are 

jThe  closing  paragraph  varies  slightly  in  punctuation  in  the  Life  and  the  Works 
by  Nicolay  and  Hay,  and  both  these  versions  differ  from  the  form  given  in  the  official 
collection  of  "Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents."  The  spelling  'loth'  in  the 
Life  is  apparently  a  misprint. 

2Herndon,  478.     3Nicolav  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  615. 

4Scribners's  Monthly,  XV.,  567. 

[48] 


49 

further  distinguished  from  other  documents  of  their  class  by 
the  introduction  of  poetical  passages  and  appeals  to  the 
imagination.  The  first  Message,  of  July  1st,  1861,  closes  with 
these  words:  ''And  having  thus  chosen  our  course,  without 
guile  and  with  pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God, 
and  go  forward  without  fear  and  with  manly  hearts."1  The 
closing  paragraphs  of  the  second  annual  message  to  Congress 
contain  the  following  forcible  words :  "  The  dogmas  of  the 
quiet  past  are  inadequate  to  the  stormy  present.  The  occasion 
is  piled  high  with  difficulty,  and  we  must  rise  with  the  occasion. 
As  our  case  is  new,  so  we  must  think  anew7  and  act  anew.  We 
must  disenthrall  ourselves,  and  then  we  shall  save  our  country. 
.  .  .  We  of  this  Congress  and  this  administration  will  be 
remembered  in  spite  of  ourselves.  .  .  .  The  fiery  trial  through 
which  we  pass  will  light  us  down,  in  honor  or  dishonor,  to  the 
latest  generation." 

The  reason  for  this  marked  difference  between  President 
Lincoln's  messages  and  those  of  other  presidents,  however,  is 
not  wholly  personal  and  individual,  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  a  warmer 
coloring  to  these  public  utterances  because  they  were  made  at 
a  time  and  under  circumstances  that  naturally  suggested  it. 

The  Proclamations,  from  their  very  nature,  are  far  more 
imaginative  than  the  messages.  Tp  thebi^ty-lp,  they  en  ri  on  sly 
suggest  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  especially  in  the  tendency 
to  follow7  Cranmers  manner  of  using  words  in  pairs,  the  exact 
phraseology  of  the  Prayer  Book  sometimes  appearing.  The. 
following  short  extracts  may  be  taken  to  illustrate  this  point : 
"And  whereas  it  is  fit  and  becoming  in  all  people,  at  all  times, 
to  acknowledge  and  revere  the  supreme  government  of  God ; 
to  bow  in  humble  submission  to  his  chastisements ;  to  confess 
and  deplore  their  sins  and  transgressions,  in  the  full  conviction 
that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom ;  and  to 

'Nicolay  £  Hay,  Works,  II.,  66.  Compare  with  this  the  following  quotation 
from  Jean  Paul  Richter,  used  by  Longfellow  as  the  motto  of  Hyperion:  "Look  not 
mournfully  into  the  Past.  It  comes  not  back  again.  Wisely  improve  the  Present.  It 
is  thine.  Go  forth  to  meet  the  shadowy  Future,  without  fear,  and  with  a  manly  heart." 

>JIbid,  II.,  276. 

[49] 


50 

pray  with  all  fervency  and  contrition  for  the  pardon  of  their 
past  offenses,  and  for  a  blessing  upon  their  present  and  pros 
pective  action.  .  .  .  Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  do  appoint  the  last  Thursday  in 
September  next  as  a  day  of  humiliation,  prayer,  and  fasting 
for  all  the  people  of  the  nation.  And  I  do  earnestly  recom 
mend  to  all  the  people,  ...  to  observe  and  keep  that  day, 
according  to  their  several  creeds  and  modes  of  worship,  in  all 
humility  and  with  all  religious  solemnity,  to  the  end  that  the 
united  prayer  of  the  nation  may  ascend  to  the  Throne  of  Grace, 
and  bring  down  plentiful  blessings  upon  our  country."  k*  It  is 
therefore  recommended  to  the  people  of  the  United  States 
that  .  .  .  they  especially  acknowledge  and  render  thanks 
to  our  Heavenly  Father  for  these  inestimable  blessings ;  .  .  . 
and  that  they  reverently  invoke  the  divine  guidance  for  our 
national  counsels,  to  the  end  that  they  may  speedily  result  in 
the  restoration  of  peace,  harmony,  and  unity  throughout  our 
borders,  and  hasten  the  establishment  of  fraternal  relations 
among  all  the  countries  of  the  earth."' 

The  two  Emancipation  Proclamations  are  of  so  formal  a 
character  that  only  their  intrinsic  importance  warrants  a  ref 
erence  to  them  in  a  study  such  as  this.  The  only  passage  that 
may  be  said  to  possess  any  literary  coloring  is  the  following 
from  the  close  of  the  Proclamation  of  January  1st,  1863  :  "  And 
upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  war 
ranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke 
the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind  and  the  gracious  favor 
of  Almighty  God."3 

Nothing  need  be  said  here  about  the  beauty  of  the  Getty  s- 
burg--Ad^Lres§.  No  words  of  praise  can  add  to  the  brightness 
of  its  sunT"  Some  attention,  however,  should  be  paid  to  certain 
evident  errors  that  have  arisen  in  connection  both  with  its 
composition  and  its  delivery.  Beginning  with  its  composition 
we  find  four  main  accounts.  The  claim  that  it  was  written  on 
the  cars  on  the  trip  from  Washington,  for  which  Arnold  seems 

'Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works,  II.,  73-74.      '-Ibid,  II.,  143.    :!Ibid,  II.,  288. 

[5o] 


51 

to  be  responsible,1  is  undoubtedly  incorrect.  The  statement 
by  General  James  B.  Fry,  who  acted  as  special  escort  to  the 
President  on  the  occasion,  that  he  had  "  no  recollection  of  see 
ing  him  writing  or  even  reading  his  speech  during  the  jour 
ney  ",a  while  not  furnishing  actual  disproof  is  strong  evidence. 
A  plausible  suggestion  is  made  by  Hapgood  :  "  The  story  that 
it  was  written  on  the  train  probably  grew  out  of  a  final  revi 
sion."3  Closely  connected  with  this  story  is  the  account  given 
by  Mowry,  "received  directly  from  the  lips  of  ex-Governor 
Curtin,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  present  on  the  occasion  and 
knew  whereof  he  affirmed."  According  to  this  account  the 
President,  while  seated  in  the  parlor  of  the  hotel  "  remarked 
that  he  understood  the  committee  expected  him  to  say  some 
thing.  He  would,  therefore,  if  they  would  excuse  him,  retire 
to  the  next  room  and  see  if  he  could  write  something.  He- 
was  absent  some  time,  and  upon  returning  to  the  company  had 
in  his  hand  a  large-sized,  yellow  government  envelope.  "After 
reading  it  and  receiving  one  or  two  suggestions  from  Mr. 
Seward,  the  President  said:  'Now,  gentlemen,  if  you  will 
excuse  me  again,  1  will  copy  this  off,'  and  retiring  again  made 
a  fresh  copy  to  read  from."4  This  statement  is  so  decided  and 
is  given  on  such  undisputed  authority  that  it  cannot  be  ig 
nored,  although  Mowry  undoubtedly  goes  too  far  when  he  says 
that  it  offers  "  conclusive  evidence  that  the  words  of  the  ad 
dress  were  not  written  out  until  after  the  Presidential  party 
had  arrived  upon  the  ground."  It  is  possible  here  also  to 
apply  Hapgood's  suggestion  of  a  final  revision. 

Finally,  we  have  two  slightly  different  accounts  of  the 
composition  of  the  Address  before  leaving  Washington.  The 
first  of  these,  by  Lamon,  states  that  a  day  or  two  before  the 
dedication  Mr.  Lincoln  expressed  to  him  the  fear  that  he  might 
not  acquit  himself  with  credit,  as  he  had  had  no  time  for  prep 
aration.  "  From  his  hat  ...  he  drew  a  sheet  of  foolscap, 
one  side  of  which  was  closely  written  with  what  he  informed 
me  was  a  memorandum  of  his  intended  address  ...  It 

Arnold,  328.     -Reminiscences,  403.     :iHapgood,  335.     4Mowry,  406. 

[50 


52 

proved  to  be  in  substance,  if  not  in  exact  words,  what  was  aft 
erwards  printed  as  his  famous  Gettysburg  speech." J  The  fourth 
account  is  by  Noah  Brooks.  On  the  Sunday  before  the  dedica 
tion  Brooks  says  that  reference  was  made  to  the  speech  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  with  whom  he  was  walking,  and  that  the  President, 
in  answer  to  a  question,  said  :  "It  is  not  exactly  written.  It 
is  not  finished,  anyway.  I  have  written  it  over,  two  or  three 
times,  and  I  shall  have  to  give  it  another  lick  before  I  am  sat 
isfied.  But  it  is  short,  short,  short.' '  Brooks  adds  :  ';I  found, 
afterward,  that  the  Gettysburg  speech  was  actually  written, 
and  rewritten  a  great  many  times."  These  two  independent 
accounts,  based  on  the  President's  own  statement,  seem  to 
prove  conclusively,  in  spite  of  their  variation,  that  the  speech 
was  composed  in  at  least  approximately  its  final  form  before 
leaving  the  capital. 

The  story  that  Edward  Everett,  the  orator  of  the  day,  on 
the  conclusion  of  the  President's  speech,  seized  the  latter's  hand 
and  expressed  a  willingness  to  exchange  his  hundred  pages  for 
those  twenty  lines  hardly  deserves  serious  attention,  though  it 
is  given  in  many  popular  lives  of  Lincoln.  It  probably  owed 
its  origin  to  the  following  passsage  from  a  letter  written  by 
Everett  the  next  day  to  the  President :  "  I  should  be  glad  if  I 
could  flatter  myself  that  1  came  as  near  to  the  central  idea  of 
that  occasion  in  two  hours  as  you  did  in  two  minutes." 

There  is  also  some  dispute  as  to  the  effect  produced  upon 
the  audience  by  the  Address.  According  to  Lamon  the  Presi 
dent  remarked  immediately  after  :  "  *  Lamon,  that  speech 
won't  'scour'.  It's  a  flat  failure."  But  as  Lamon  states  that 
Mr.  Everett  and  Secretary  Seward  agreed  with  the  President 
in  his  unfavorable  view/  our  knowledge  of  Mr.  Everett's 
written  opinion  inclines  us  to  doubt  the  correctness  of  Lamon's 
statement. 

No  confirmation  has  been  found  of  Morse's  claim  that 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  added  to  the  words  which  he  himself  had  written 
a  quotation  of  one  of  Webster's  most  famous  flights  of  oratory,— 

'Lamon,  170.    2Scribner's  Monthly,  XV'.,  565. 
HNicolay  &  Hay,  Life,  VIII.,  203.     4Lamon,  171. 

[52] 


58 

that  familiar  passage  in  reply  to  Hayne,  beginning :  '  When  my 
eyes  turn  to  behold  for  the  last  time  the  sun  in  heaven,'  etc."1 

The  Second  Inaugural  marks  the  highest  pitch  of  the 
presidential  addresses,  as  the  Cooper  Institute  Address  marks 
the  highest  pitch  of  the  political  addresses.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  in  its  combined  distinction  of  thought  and 
beauty  and  perfection  of  form  the  Second  Inaugural  is  unex 
celled  by  any  other  state  paper  in  the  English  tongue.  It 
cannot  be  better  characterized  than  in  the  brief  words  of  Carl 
Schurz  :  '*  This  was  like  a  sacred  poem.  No  American  Pres 
ident  had  ever  spoken  words  like  these  to  the  American  people. 
America  never  had  a  president  who  found  such  w^ords  in  the 
depth  of  his  heart." 

Noting  the  continued  simplicity  of  manners  and  depth  of 
sympathy  shown  by  Mr.  Lincoln  as  President,  it  might  be 
assumed  that  the  four  years  spent  in  Washington  had  no  ap 
preciable  effect  upon  him.  It  is  certainly  true  that  his  great 
heart  was  never  hardened  by  the  selfish  worldliness  of  the 
capital.  Therefore  the  distress  of  a  father  or  mother  pleading 
for  the  life  of  a  son,  or  the  dreadful  losses  of  a  battle  appealed 
with  as  great  force  to  Lj*icoln  at  the  end  of  his  term  of  office 
as  at  the  beginning.  J\it  is  also  true  that  his  later  public 
addresses,  like  his  earlier  ones,  were  always  the  expression  of 
intense  feeling,  suggested  by  some  special  circumstance.  He 
not  only  found  it  difficult  to  speak  when  he  had  nothing  to 
say,  but  he  was  unable  to  find  anything  to  say  unless  his  sym 
pathies  were  engaged.  All  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  real  contributions 
to  literature  are  of  this  occasional  class,  from  the  Bloomington 
Speech,  dictated  by  political  enthusiasm,  through  the  farewell 
speech  at  Springfield,  breathing  neighborly  love,  to  the  Second 
Inaugural,  inspired  by  devotion  to  his  country  and  by  joy  at 
the  prospect  of  renewed  peace  and  prosperity. 

And  yet,  while  Lincoln's  great  heart  remained  the  same, 
the  style  of  his  utterances  after  his  election  to  the  presidency 
suffered  a  change.  The  Second  Inaugural  is  anticipated  only 

,  II. ,216.     2Schurz,  II.,  206. 

1531 


54 

in  single  passages  by  the  earlier  writings,  and  no  parallel  to 
the  Gettysburg  Address  and  the  Bixby  letter  can  be  found. 
Part  of  this  change  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  subject  matter, 
but  still  more  is  the  result  of  an  intellectual  change  in  Lincoln 
himself. 

Thus,  while  Lincoln  the  man  remained  ever  the  same, 
his  intellect  continually  broadened  and  his  sensibilities  were 
quickened.  Mr.  Lincoln's  realization  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
speaking  to  the  country  did  not  affect  his  minor  utterances 
alone,  but  it  informed  all  his  important  papers  with  dignity 
and  impressiveness.  The  very  difficulties  under  which  he 
labored  and  the  anxieties  and  disappointments  to  which  he 
was  daily  exposed  acted  as  an  intellectual  discipline  of  the 
greatest  value.  Even  his  personal  bereavement  during  the 
presidency  must  be  taken  into  consideration  by  the  student  of 
Lincoln's  development  as  a  writer.  There  is  a  significance 
beyond  that  intended  by  the  speaker  in  these  words  of  the 
First  Inaugural :  "  Yet,  with  all  this  scope  of  precedent,  1  now 
enter  upon  the  same  task  for  the  constitutional  term  of  four 
years  under  great  and  peculiar  difficulty." 

}  In  his  earlier  life  Lincoln  had  learned  much  from  the  books 
'of  the  Bible,  Shakspere  and  Burns,  his  powers  of  observation 
and  his  judgment  of  human  nature  had  been  broadened  by  close 
intercourse  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  his  imagina 
tion  had  been  kindled  by  the  majesty  of  Niagara  Falls  and  by 
the  quiet  beauty  of  the  woods  and  the  lonely  monotony  of  the 
wide-stretching  prairie.  To  all  these  influences  were  finally 
added  the  discipline  and  inspiration  that  come  from  an  active 
sharing  in  the  affairs  of  a  nation  engaged  in  a  mighty  struggle 
for  existence.  Viewed  in  this  light  the  Gettysburg  Address 
and  the  Second  Inaugural  are  no  longer  isolated  phenomena, 
they  are  as  truly  the  result  of  natural  conditions  as  is 
Lincoln's  success  as  a  lawyer  and  debater. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  public  utterances  as  President  of  the  United 
States  are  the  fullest  expression  of  that  wonderful  culture 
the  development  of  which  has  been  attempted  in  these  pages. 

[54J 


APPENDIX 


QUOTATIONS   OCCURRING    IN    LINCOLN'S   WRITINGS  * 

1832     "  Firm  as  the  surge-repelling-  rock." — Letter. 

1841  "  Kiss  her  'o'er  and  o'er  again  V — Letter. 

1842  "  A  drop  of  honey  catches  more  flies  than  a  gallon  of  gall."— 

German  proverb.     Temperance  Address. 

"  Love  through  all  their  actions  runs,  and  all  their  works  are 
mild."     Ibid. 

"  While  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn,   The  vilest  sinner  may  re 
turn."     Apparently  from  a  hymn.     Ibid. 

"Come  sound  the  moral  trump,  that  these  may  rise  and  stand 
up  an  exceeding  great  army."     Ibid. 

"  Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath  !  and  breathe  upon  these 
slain  that  they  may  live."     Ibid. 

"  Savory  remembrances."     Ibid. 
1848     "  Attempt  the  end  and  never  stand  to  doubt, 

Nothing  so  hard  but  search  will  find  it  out."    Speech  in  Con 
gress. — Herrick. 

"Seek  and  find."     Ibid. 

"The  noblest  Roman  of  them   all."  — Shakspere,  "Hamlet". 

Ibid. 

1854     "  Fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread." — Pope,   "  Essay  on 
Criticism".     Peoria  Speech. 

"  It  hath  [has]  no  relish  of  salvation  in  it.'1 — Shakspere^  "Ham 
let  ".     Ibid. 

"Cancel    and  tear  in   [to]   pieces." — Shakspere,    "Macbeth". 
Ibid. 

"Grand,    gloomy  and  peculiar." — Wendell  Phillips  on  Napo 
leon.     Ibid. 

' '  Bloody  hand.  "—Suggests  ' '  Macbeth".     Ibid. 
1856     "  Cradle  of  Liberty."     Ibid. 

"Nominated  in  the  bond." — Shakspere,  "  Merchant  of  Venice  ". 

Ibid. 

*In  order  to  keep  the  list  within  proper  limits  quotations  from  the  Bible  are  not 
included. 

[55] 


56 

1856     "  Where  the  offence  lies  there  let  the  [great]  axe  fall."— Shaks 
pere,  "Hamlet".     Ibid. 
"  .     .     .     they  never  mention  him, 

His  name  is  never  heard  : 
Their  lips  are  now  forbid  to  speak 

That  once  familiar  word."— T.  H.  Bayley,  Song-.     Ibid. 
[The  original  reads  :       "Oh  no  !  we  never  mention  her, 

Her  name  is  never  heard  : 
My  lips—"  etc.] 
"He  is  the  cat's  paw." — /Esop's  Fables.     Fragment  of  Speech 

in  Chicago. 

"  As  the  fool  said  of  King  Lear,  when  his  daughters  had  turned 
him  out  of  doors,  'He's  a  shelled  peascod.'"      ["That's  a 
shelled  peascod.'1] — Shakspere,  "  King  Lear  ".     Ibid. 
"Come  as  the  winds  come,  when  forests  are  rended  ; 
Come  as  the  waves  come,  when  navies  are  stranded.''--  Scott, 
"  Pibroch  of  Donald  Dhu  ".   [Given  by  Nicolay  and  Hay  as 
the  peroration  of  the  Lost  Speech.] 

1858  "  A  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion." — Proverb.     Speech 

at  the  Springfield  Convention. 

1859  "As  Plato  had  for  the    immortality  of  the   soul,   so   Young 

America  has   a  '  pleasing  hope,  a  fond  desire — a  longing 
after'  territory." — Plato.     Lecture  on  Inventions. 

1861  "  You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven." — Shakspere,  "  Ham 

let".     First  Inaugural. 

"Act  well  your  part,  there  all  the  honor  lies.'1 — Pope,    ''  Essay 
on  Criticism  ".—Letter.  [First  published  inTarbell,!!.,  348.] 

1862  "  From  age  to  age  descends  the  lay 

To  miUions  yet  to  be, 
Till  far  its  echoes  roll  away 

Into  eternity." — Hymn.     Address  On  Colonization,  August 
14th. 


I56J 


57 

APPENDIX   II 


AUTHORITIES    CITED. 

[The  names  in  parenthesis  are  those  by  which  the  authorities  are  cited.] 

Arnold,  Isaac  N.  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Chicago,  1885. 
(Arnold.) 

Brooks,  Noah.  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Harper's  New 
Monthly  Magazine,  Vol.  XXXL,  1865.  (Harper). 

Personal  Reminiscences  of  Lincoln.     Scribner's  Monthly, 
XV.,  1877-78.      (Scribner's  Monthly.) 

Lincoln's  Imagination.    Scribner's  Monthly,  Vol.  XVIII., 
1879. 

^Carpenter,  F.  B.  The  Inner  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Six  Months 
at  the  White  House.  New  York,  1869.  (Carpenter.) 

Chambrun,  The  Marquis  de.  Personal  Recollections  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
Scribner's  Mag-azine,  Vol.  XIII.,  1893.  (Scribner's  Magazine.) 

Hapgood,  Norman.  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  Man  of  the  People. 
New  York,  1899.  (Hapgood.) 

Herndon,  William  H.  and  Jesse  William  Weik.  Herndon's  Lincoln. 
The  True  Story  of  a  Great  Life.  .  .  .  The  History  and 
Personal  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  3  Vols.,  Chicago, 
1889.  (Herndon.) 

Lamon,  \Vard  Hill.  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  1847-65. 
Edited  by  [his  daughter]  Dorothy  Lamon.  Chicago,  1895.  (La 
mon.) 

Morse,  John  T.,  Jr.  Abraham  Lincoln.  American  Statesmen  Se 
ries.  2  Vols  ,  Boston,  1893.  (Morse.) 

Mowry,  William  A.  and  Arthur  May  Mowry.  History  of  the  United 
States  for  Schools.  New  York,  1897.  (Mowry.) 

Nicolay,  John  C.  and  John  Hay.  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  History.  10 
Vols.,  New  York,  1890.  (Nicolay  &  Hay,  Life.) 

-  Abraham  Lincoln.  Complete  Works.  Comprising  his 
Speeches,  Letters,  State  Papers,  and  Miscellaneous  Writings.  2 
Vols.,  New  York,  1894.  (Nicolay  &  Hay,  Works.) 

*Mr.  Carpenter  painted  his  well-known  picture    "The  Emancipation    Procla 
mation  "  during  those  six  months. 

[57] 


58 

Rice,  Allen  Thorndike,  Editor.  Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
by  Distinguished  Men  of  his  Time.  Eighth  Edition,  New  York, 
1889.  (Reminiscences.) 

Schur/s,  Carl.   Abraham  Lincoln.   An  Essay.   Boston,  1892.    (Schurz.) 

Sumner,  Charles,  The  Works  of.  15  Vols.,  Boston,  1875-83.  (Sum- 
ner.) 

Tarbell,  Ida  M.  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Drawn  from  the 
original  Sources,  etc.  New  York,  1900.  (Tarbell.) 

Viele,  Egbert  L.  A  Trip  with  Lincoln,  Chase  and  Stantont  Scrib- 
ner's  Monthly,  Vol.  XVI.,  1878.  (Scribner's  Monthly.) 

Ward,  William  Hayes,  Editor.  Abraham  Lincoln.  Tributes  from 
his  Associates.  Reminiscences  of  Soldiers,  Statesmen  and  Citi 
zens.  New  York,  1895.  (Ward.) 

Whitney,  Henry  C  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln  etc.  Illus 
trated.  Boston,  1892.  (Whitney.) 

In  the  quotations  from  Lincoln's  writings  and  from  the  authorities,  the  exact 
form  of  the  originals  has  been  preserved,  with  only  occasional  corrections.  This 
accounts  for  the  different  spellings  of  proper  names  arid  other  words. 


XHntoersttp  of  3flUnoi0 


Vol.  I  APRIL,  1901  No.  2 


The  Decline  of  the  Commerce  of  the  Port  of 

New  York 

By 

RICHARD  PRICE  MORGAN 

Dwight,  Illinois 


uEnttoer0t$p 
€|)ampatg;n  anU  Orbana 


The  University  has  previously  published  one  number  of  the 
University  Studies,  under  the  title:  Abraham  Lincoln:  The  K vo 
lution  of  his  Literary  Style. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  COMMERCE  OF  THE 
PORT  OF  NEW  YORK* 


It  would  be  impossible,  within  the  compass  of  a  single 
paper,  to  attempt  a  detailed  and  careful  examination  of  the 
decline  of  the  commerce  of  New  York  City,  and  I,  therefore, 
disclaim  at  the  threshold  any  such  intention.  But  I  may  well 
hope  to  state  in  a  general  way  the  conclusions  that  years  of 
investigation  have  forced  upon  my  mind.  The  result  may  not 
be  convincing,  in  fact  it  may  not  justify  the  method  employed, 
but  the  conclusion  reached  is  in  no  case  the  expression  of  a 
purely  personal  opinion,  and  the  view  presented  is,  I  believe, 
uncolored  by  personal  feeling.  Perhaps  I  might  add  that  the 
views,  although  based  upon  numerous  documents,  reports,  and 
the  literature  dealing  with  the  subject,  have  been  corrected, 
matured  and  supplemented  by  professional  employment  in 
New  York.  It  is  not,  therefore,  a  theory  I  present,  but  the 
result  of  professional  observation. 

The  history  of  the  period  of  rapid  growth  and  progress  of 
every  part  of  the  United  States  is  practically  identical  with  the 
facilities  provided  by  natural  conditions  and  by  the  mechanic 
arts  for  connecting  their  commercial  exchanges. 

About  1809  Boston  was  pre-eminent  in  the  United  States 
for  her  commercial  relations.  Her  comparatively  dense  tribu 
tary  population  and  the  introduction  of  manufactures  enabled 
her  for  a  number  of  years  to  take  the  lead  of  the  City  of  New 
York.  It  was  not  until  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal,  fifteen 
years  later,  that  an  essential  change  took  place.  This,  the 
first  remarkable  event  leading  to  greater  economy  in  transpor 
tation,  and  the  introduction  of  steam  on  navigable  rivers  and 
the  Great  Lakes,  enabled  New  York  City  to  secure  the  domestic 
trade  of  a  wide-spread  territory.  Other  Atlantic  seaports  could 

^Copyrighted  1891  by  Richard  Price  Morgan. 

[61] 


obtain  but  a  small  proportion  in  consequence  of  the  fact  that 
canals  are  poorly  adapted  to  crossing  the  mountainous  regions 
which  intercepted  them  from  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Great  Lakes  basin,  ridges  which  are  broken  by  tide 
water  in  the  valley  of  the  Hudson  only.  The  necessity  to  them 
of  cheap  transportation  was,  therefore,  so  fully  appreciated 
and  so  forcibly  felt  by  the  enterprising  citizens  of  Pennsylva 
nia  and  other  southeastern  states,  that  they  boldly  projected 
the  use  of  canals  and  surmounted  the  mountain  ridges  with 
them,  by  constructing  their  boats  in  two  sections  and  so  carry 
ing  them  over  portages  by  stationary  power.  This  very  imper 
fect  method  was  put  into  successful  practice  at  an  immense 
cost  for  those  times. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  the  completion  of  these  great 
works,  a  Second  Era  of  Internal  Improvements  was  inaugu 
rated  by  the  introduction  of  railroads.  In  1828  the  world  was 
astonished  by  the  opening  to  public  use  of  the  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  Kailroad  and  the  wonderful  effects  produced  by  it. 
These  facts,  in  passing,  illuminate  for  a  moment  the  conjunction 
of  two  great  names;  the  men  of  genius  who  gave  the  powerful, 
comprehensive,  and  enduring  impulse  to  the  material  progress 
of  the  world,  during  the  century  just  passed, — Robert  Fulton 
and  George  Stephenson. 

Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Washington,  finding  that  their 
canals  crossing  the  mountains  were  incapable  of  competing 
with  the  Erie  Canal,  seized  upon  the  railroad  with  the  greatest 
avidity,  and  by  the  aid  of  circuitous  routes  and  heavy  grades 
opened  lines  of  communication  with  the  Mississippi  Valley  and 
the  Great  Lakes  basin.  New  York  and  Boston  were  equally 
active  in  availing  themselves  of  this  new  means  for  the  trans 
portation  of  persons  and  property,  and  they,  also,  constructed 
railways  to  the  same  regions.  The  wonderful  effect  of  these 
lines  of  transit  upon  the  extensive  country  over  which  they 
have  since  been  constructed,  and  of  steam  navigation  on  the 
lakes  and  rivers,  discloses  the  greatest  influences  referred  to  in 
alluding  to  the  progress  through  the  mechanic  arts. 

[62] 


The  railroads  have  not  only  been  chiefly  instrumental  in 
the  development  of  the  productive  areas  of  the  country  by 
making  them  fit  for  an  enterprising  and  industrious  population ; 
but  they  have  also  revolutionized  the  commercial  relations  and 
habits  of  the  people,  by  establishing,  through  the  means  of  rapid 
transit,  comparatively  close  intercourse  for  nearly  all  of  their 
needs.  The  results  have  been  so  immense,  so  far-reaching,  and 
so  beneficial  in  detail  that  the  question  is  now  stringently 
pressed  in  many  quarters  as  to  what  is  the  true  and  full  capacity 
of  railroads  to  serve  the  people,  and  what  is  to  be  their  future 
influence  upon  the  country  at  large  and  upon  its  exterior  and 
interior  cities  of  commerce. 

In  considering  the  subject,  the  influence  of  the  Great  Lakes 
by  their  present  and  prospective  water  connection  with  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  as  well  as  with  the  Mississippi  Hi ver  must  be 
taken  into  account,  including  all  of  the  points  of  contact  and 
effective  competition  of  these  water  lines  with  the  railway 
system.  Great  benefits  would  doubtless  be  realized  by  the 
Middle  West  and  especially  by  the  region  west  of  and  between 
the  parallels  of  latitude  embraced  by  the  lakes,  if  a  water  way 
could  be  made  connecting  the  lakes  with  the  Atlantic  at  New 
York — a  channel  that  could  be  successfully  navigated  by  first 
class  ocean  and  lake  vessels.  The  report  of  the  preliminary 
surveys  and  investigations,  December,  1896,  made  under  author 
ity  of  congress,  as  to  the  physical  and  financial  feasibility  of 
constructing  such  a  water  way,  was  so  encouraging  that  more 
complete  and  accurate  surveys  and  estimates  were  ordered  by 
congress,  and  an  investigation  of  the  comparative  cost  and  the 
feasibility  of  the  several  routes  upon  which  ship  channels  twen 
ty-one  feet  and  thirty  feet  deep  may  be  constructed.  The  sur 
veys  and  estimates  upon  this  project  have  recently  been  re 
ported  to  congress  for  its  consideration. 

The  Mississippi  River  and  its  extensive  tributaries  have 
always  been  and  still  are  navigated  under  unfavorable  circum 
stances;  but  the  work  of  improving  this  vast  system  of  river 
navigation  is  in  progress,  and  the  force  of  public  opinion,  as  to 

[63] 


its  importance,  is  probably  too  extended  and  powerful  to  be 
overcome  by  the  railways  and  other  adverse  interests.  It  may, 
therefore,  be  depended  upon  that  many  of  the  improvements 
contemplated  by  the  government  will  be  completed. 

The  advantages  to  be  derived  by  the  people  of  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley  and  citizens  of  the  United  States  at  large,  from 
these  improvements,  will  doubtless  be  very  great;  but  experience 
has  already  demonstrated  that  the  railways  are  successful  com 
petitors  of  the  water  lines  in  important  respects,  even  when  the 
railways  are  located  closely  adjacent  to  the  best  navigation  af 
forded  by  the  lakes,  rivers  and  canals. 

Already  several  railways  parallel  with  the  Mississippi  river 
have  been  constructed  to  the  Gulf  ports  on  the  east  and  west 
of  New  Orleans,  by  which  throughout  its  navigable  length  the 
movement  of  persons  and  property  to  the  Mississippi  for  ship 
ment  has  been  greatly  intercepted  and  carried  by  rail  to  other 
gulf  ports. 

The  regulating  influence  of  lake,  river,  and  canal  rates 
upon  railroad  rates  is  at  present  felt  almost  wholly  in  the 
transportation  of  grain,  ores,  coal,  and  other  coarse  and  heavy 
products  conveniently  carried  in  bulk.  Their  influence  upon 
the  charges  by  rail  for  transporting  persons  and  light  and 
valuable  merchandise,  express  and  mail  matter,  indeed,  all 
things  which  demand  quick  transit,  is  no  longer  perceptible. 
My  judgment  is  that,  in  the  main,  railroads  are  paramount, 
and  that  their  pre-eminence  will  be  fully  maintained  by 
improved  facilities,  equaling  any  that  can  be  made  in  trans 
portation  by  internal  water  ways.  In  the  same  light  it  is  prob 
ably  safe  to  forecast  that  by  railroad  trains  on  the  land,  and 
by  steamers  and  sailing  vessels  on  the  water,  the  work  of  trans 
porting  persons  and  property  will  continue  to  be  done;  and  it 
is  also  safe  to  predict  that  submarine  vessels  and  air  ships  will 
continue  to  while  away  their  time  at  the  old  anchorage. 

Quickly  after  the  termination  of  the  Civil  War,  the  pro 
ducers  and  consumers  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  the  region 
of  the  Great  Lakes  sorely  felt  the  onerous  tax  resting  upon 

[64] 


them  for  the  transportation  of  persons  and  property  to  and 
from  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  They  soon  learned  that  lower 
charges  must  be  obtained,  else  a  new  and  comprehensive  adjust 
ment  of  the  industries  of  the  country  would  take  place  through 
the  force  of  economic  principles,  so  that  such  a  disproportion 
ate  percentage  of  the  people's  earnings  would  not  be  taken  up 
for  transportation  charges. 

The  brilliant  future  of  New^  York,  at  that  time,  was  shad 
owed  by  the  hand  of  extortion,  and  it  was  seen  by  her  most 
enterprising  and  intelligent  merchants  that,  if  the  producer, 
manufacturer,  merchant,  and  consumer  were  forced  by  a  com 
mon  interest  to  unite  prematurely  on  the  fertile  plains  of  the 
Mississippi  valley,  the  political  and  commercial  change  wrould 
be  in  magnitude  and  rapidity  without  parallel  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  The  strenuous  efforts  of  the  merchants  of  New 
York  and  of  the  people  of  the  West  at  that  time  resulted  in 
measurable  relief,  but  it  fell  far  short  of  curing  the  malady. 

The  great  change  predicted  is,  therefore,  already  far  ad 
vanced  and  is  rapidly  approaching  its  final  establishment  and 
resting  place.  The  focal  point  of  the  industries  of  the  United 
States  is  now  about  midway  between  Chicago  and  St.  Louis. 
It  is  not  far  from  the  center  of  population,  and  it  is  also  very 
near  the  center  of  productive  capacity  for  food  and  manufac 
tures,  being  on  the  axis  of  the  most  fertile,  extended,  and  dense 
ly  populated  region  of  the  Middle  West.  The  census  just  com 
pleted  indicates  clearly  that  the  focal  point  spoken  of  will  not 
again  be  materially  disturbed  by  the  future  development  of  the 
country. 

The  western  limit  of  surplus  grain  production,  excepting 
the  Pacific  coast  states,  cannot  reasonably  be  placed  west  of 
the  one-hundredth  meridian.  The  recession  of  the  emigration 
which  pressed  beyond  this  line  and  the  very  small  increase  of 
population  in  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  everywhere  along  the 
border  of  the  plains,  as  disclosed  by  the  census  of  1900,  practi 
cally  established  permanently  the  limiting  line  of  surplus  cereal 
productions. 

[65] 


The  diverting  of  the  commerce  of  the  interior  to  other 
ports  from  territory  formerly  tributary  to  New  York,  primarily 
involves  important  physical  considerations  which  exercise  in 
fluences  of  a  reciprocal  nature  upon  the  routes  of  commerce. 
This  feature  of  the  subject  may  be  briefly  considered  before 
discussing  the  conditions  which  have  grown  out  of  the  applica 
tion  of  capital,  international  development,  and  local  causes  af 
fecting  New  York  as  a  commercial  center. 

The  routes  of  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
exert  extended  competitive  influence  over  transportation 
charges  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  reciprocally  the  river  system  exerts  similar  in 
fluence  over  the  charges  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard  by  the  Great 
Lakes  route.  Again,  it  is  manifest  that  all  of  these  water  routes 
have  their  influence  upon  the  cost  of  transportation  by  railways 
to  eastern  and  southern  ports. 

There  are,  however,  important  limitations  to  this  competi 
tion  between  the  water  and  rail  lines  spoken  of,  the  most  im 
portant  being  the  limit  of  the  season  of  navigation  on  the  up 
per  rivers  and  the  Great  Lakes  to  eight  months.  But,  during 
the  season  of  navigation,  the  Lakes  surpass  all  other  means  of 
transporting  gross  articles,  and  in  that  respect  meet  the  de 
mands  of  the  immense  length  of  fertile  and  mineral  country 
bordering  them.  The  extent  of  the  beneficial  influence  of  the 
lake  routes  to  the  seaboard  for  cereals  is  determined  largely  by 
their  eligibility  to  the  great  surplus  grain  producing  areas  of 
the  West  and  Northwest. 

During  the  last  thirty  years  highly  important  changes  have 
taken  place  in  the  relative  position  of  the  surplus  grain  pro 
ducing  areas  west,  southwest,  and  northwest,  of  the  Lakes;  that 
is  in  the  central  axes  east  and  west  of  the  wheat  and  corn  areas. 
The  routes  by  which  these  cereals  are  taken  to  the  ports  of  ex 
port  have  thus  been  materially  affected. 

During  the  period  referred  to,  the  development  of  the 
surplus  wheat  area  has  been  north  of  latitude  42°  and  west  of 
longitude  93°,  and  the  central  axis  of  its  production  has  moved 

[66] 


9 

from  Lake  Michigan,  at  Chicago,  to  a  point  west  of  Lake  Supe 
rior.  It  is  quite  manifest  that  the  geographical  transfer  of  the 
surplus  wheat  producing  area  has  also  changed  the  movement 
of  this  product  to  market  almost  exclusively  to  the  routes  by 
the  Great  Lakes;  in  fact,  the  railways  have  not  yet  seriously 
undertaken  to  compete  for  this  business  of  the  northwest  des 
tined  to  eastern  and  foreign  markets.  It  is  also  quite  apparent 
that  the  central  axis  of  production  of  this  cereal  is  now  more 
convenient  to  the  Canadian  transportation  lines  than  ever 
before,  and  American  lines  of  railway  have  recently  felt  the 
effect  of  Canadian  competition  as  well  as  that  of  the  lakes. 
During  the  same  period  the  surplus  corn  producing  area  devel 
oped  to  the  west  and  southwest  from  Lake  Michigan,  gradually 
becoming  more  eligible  to  the  southerly  Atlantic  and  Gulf 
ports,  which  have,  in  consequence,  become  important  markets 
of  foreign  export  and  coastwise  distribution. 

Taking  into  consideration  all  of  the  means  of  transit,  as 
they  are,  and  the  terminal  facilities  now  provided  at  the  Atlan 
tic  and  Gulf  ports,  it  seems  that  New  York  has  yielded  much 
of  this  element  of  her  commerce  to  the  geographical  change  in 
the  relative  position  of  a  populous,  manufacturing,  and  very 
large  surplus-producing  territory. 

With  these  general  considerations  in  view  as  a  partial 
means  for  comprehending  their  effect  upon  the  commerce  of 
New  York,  there  are  additional  reasons  for  the  loss  of  other 
territory  formerly  largely  tributary  to  that  city.  For  a  num 
ber  of  years  prior  to  the  rebellion,  capital  found  safe  employ 
ment  mainly  in  the  North.  Its  application  created  and  devel 
oped  avenues  of  transit  between  the  East  and  the  West,  and  its 
controlling  influence  strengthened  commercial  and  manufac 
turing  interests  at  the  North,  with  the  effect  that  for  many 
years  there  was  an  increased  tendency  for  the  growth  of  manu 
factures  and  commerce  to  move  upon  east  and  west  lines  on 
the  parallel  of  New  York  and  adjacent  to  it. 

Those  political  issues  are  no  longer  dividing  the  Nation, 
and  defining  limits  for  the  safe  investment  of  capital.  Money 

[67 


10 

now  finds  safe  employment  throughout  the  entire  country,  and 
for  more  than  twenty  years  past  has  been  freely  invested  in 
the  southern  states,  developing  new  lines  of  internal  commu 
nication,  opening  new  ocean  and  gulf  ports,  at  many  eligible 
localities,  for  direct  intercourse  with  the  markets  of  the  world, 
and  otherwise  affording  the  means  for  the  general  industrial 
advance  already  well  inaugurated.  These  comparatively  new 
channels  of  commerce  can  but  exercise  an  increasing  influence 
adverse  to  the  old  lines  which  were  early  strengthened  by  the 
conditions  alluded  to. 

The  foreign  and  coastwise  commerce,  which  wras  originally 
possessed  almost  exclusively  by  the  port  of  New  York  and  a 
few  other  ports,  is  now  conveniently  finding  an  outlet  at  many 
ports.  The  advantages  and  facilities  then  afforded  at  north 
Atlantic  ports  are  no  longer  enjoyed  by  them  so  fully.  Many 
of  the  essential  facilities  for  expedition  and  economy,  quite 
equal  to  those  of  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore, 
are  now  provided  at  other  ports,  and  as  the  tendency  of  com 
merce  is  towards  an  equilibrium  in  the  volume  of  exports  and 
imports,  the  results  of  this  development  upon  the  commerce 
of  New  York  have  been  seriously  felt.  For  these  and  many 
other  reasons  the  decline  in  the  commerce  of  New  York  is  "a 
great  and  live  question." 

The  comprehensive  development  of  the  railway  system, 
extending  from  every  port  of  entry  into  every  state  and  county ; 
connecting  every  city  of  commercial  importance  with  almost 
every  town  and  hamlet  in  the  country,  at  large,  now  circum 
scribes  and  limits  the  competition  by  water  routes.  By  virtue 
of  a  common  gauge  and  perfected  traffic  arrangements,  every 
center  of  trade  and  industry  is  provided  with  ready  intercourse 
with  the  interior,  and  means  of  continuous  rapid  transit  to  the 
seaports.  Under  these  conditions,  east  bound  shipments  by 
rail  from  local  points  in  the  Middle  West  secure  the  benefit  of 
direct  through  rates  against  comparatively  higher  rates  charged 
for  short  hauls  to  the  Great  Lakes  for  trans-shipment  by  water 
to  the  east. 

[68] 


11 

It  is  a  well  established  fact  at  the  present  time  that  the 
actual  cost  of  transportation  on  the  lakes,  per  ton  per  mile,  for 
heavy  articles  in  bulk,  is  less  than  the  actual  cost  for  the  same 
service  by  rail.  It  is  also  true  that,  even  within  the  range  of 
competition,  the  advantages  of  quick  and  constant  transit  have 
in  a  great  degree  taken  possession  of  the  commercial  world, 
which  finds  its  interests  better  served  than  by  slower  move 
ment.  There  is  an  objection  to  transfer  expenses  and  the 
detentions  incident  to  winter  seasons,  as  well  as  to  trans-ship 
ment  to  lake  vessels,  canal  boats,  or  barges  and  from  those  into 
ocean-going  craft,  and  all  return  tonnage  is  subject  to  the  same 
objection.  Hence  railways  for  and  within  themselves  are  con 
stantly  seeking  a  balance  of  tonnage  from  the  seaboard  against 
that  moving  to  it.  The  regulating  influence  of  the  Great  Lakes 
routes  is  disturbed  by  these  conditions,  and  it  is  also  subject  to 
important  limitations  with  respect  to  the  quality  and  value  of 
the  commodities  seeking  transport. 

One  of  the  striking  features  of  the  lake  traffic  is  its  extreme 
simplicity.  Nearly  the  entire  volume  of  business  is  embraced 
in  a  few  commodities  and  articles. 

In  lieu  of  presenting  tables  and  voluminous  figures  in  de 
tail  to  sustain  and  justify  my  address,  I  present  the  following 
quotation  from  the  summary  of  the  Conclusions  of  the  New 
York  Commerce  Commission  in  a  voluminous  report  presented 
to  the  Governor  of  New  York  in  1900:— 

"The  decline  in  New  York's  commerce  has  been  steady  and 
continuous  for  many  years;  it  has  been  more  pronounced  during 
recent  years  and  has  now  reached  serious  proportions  in  an 
actual  loss  of  exports.  This  loss  has  been  largely  in  exports  of 
grain  and  flour.  While  New  York  has  been  steadily  losing, 
Montreal,  Boston,  Newport  News,  and  the  Gulf  ports  of  New 
Orleans  and  Galveston  have  made  substantial  gains". 

The  Commission  also  says:— 

"No  analysis  of  statistics  will  permit  an  escape  from  a  full 
realization  that  New  York  has  lost  in  her  export  trade,  not  only 
has  lost,  but  is  losing". 

[69] 


12 

An  explanation  has  been  given  of  the  change  in  the  central 
axis  of  the  corn  producing  area,  which  in  a  degree  accounts  for 
the  decline  in  the  export  of  that  cereal  from  New  York;  but 
with  regard  to  wheat  it  has  been  shown  that  the  change  in  the 
central  axis  of  production  has  in  respect  to  water  transporta 
tion  been  favorable  to  New  York;  yet  there  has  been  a  decline 
in  the  amount  of  wheat  exported  from  that  port  quite  equal  to 
the  decline  in  corn. 

As  exports  more  nearly  represent  competitive  business, 
this  brief  allusion  is  for  the  purpose  of  leading  to  the  considera 
tion  of  the  "terminal  charge"  made  by  railroad  lines  centering 
at  New  York,  as  well  as  to  the  consideration  of  differential 
rates  by  rail  to  the  leading  ports  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

TERMINAL  CHARGE 

Of  the  New  York  terminal  charge  it  may  be  said  that  per 
haps  the  influence  exerted  by  it  was  originally  intended  to  be 
local  in  its  effect,  but  in  reality  its  influence  is  not  only  far- 
reaching  but  is  exceedingly  harmful  to  New  York.  This  charge 
is  also  of  not  a  little  concern  to  the  Central  West  whose  interests 
can  best  be  conserved  by  commercial  intercourse  with  New 
York.  So  long  as  it  shall  continue  to  be  as  excessive  as  hitherto, 
and  so  long  as  it  is  applied  upon  its  present  basis  to  east-bound 
shipments  originating  in  the  Central  West,  it  will  continue  to 
exercise  an  adverse  influence  between  New  York  and  territory 
naturally  tributary  to  that  city.  The  effect  of  a  charge,  on  all 
rail  shipments  of  grain,  of  two  or  three  cents  per  one  hundred 
pounds  to  cover  terminal  expenses  at  New  York,  needs  no  spe 
cial  elucidation  beyond  the  statement  of  fact,  for  it  is  a  matter 
of  almost  common  knowledge  and  the  results  are  not  in  the 
least  obscure. 

On  grain  shipments  from  Chicago  to  New  York,  when  the 
consignment  is  routed  over  other  than  through  lines,  the  charge 
is  prorated  to  the  respective  roads  forming  the  through  lines. 
The  proportional  division  of  the  rate  is  not  based  upon  the  full 
through  tariff  charged  for  the  shipment  from  Chicago  to  New 

[70] 


13 

York,  but  the  terminal  charge  is  first  deducted  from  the  full 
rate,  and,  after  being  credited  to  the  eastern  connection  to 
cover  the  terminal  expense,  the  remainder  of  the  through  rate 
is  then  prorated  between  the  lines  over  which  the  consign 
ment  is  shipped.  Western  lines  making  their  connections  with 
lines  terminating  in  New  York,  though  hauling  the  grain  the 
greater  distance,  secure  the  lesser  proportion  of  the  total 
charge.  As  a  result,  then,  since  New  York  is  the  only  eastern 
port  having  an  extensive  terminal  charge  which  the  western 
connections  must  participate  in  paying,  it  is  most  natural  that 
so  far  as  possible  western  lines  should  seek  connections  with 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  at  ports  where  a  less  or  no  terminal 
charge  is  exacted,  by  which  means  they  are  permitted  to  share 
the  total  charge  in  proper  proportion.  The  energies  of  New 
York  should  be  applied  to  reduce  this  terminal  charge  and  to 
readjust  the  relation  it  now  bears  to  western  lines  forming  New 
York  connections.  This  is  necessary  in  order  that  western 
lines  and  shippers  may  be  offered  inducements  via  New  York 
equal  to  those  possessed  by  any  other  connections  that  can  be 
made  with  Atlantic  ports. 

Before  speaking  of  differential  rates  it  is  also  important 
to  note  that  the  lighterage  and  elevating  charge  on  export 
grain  at  New  York  is  higher  than  at  other  Atlantic  ports; 
therefore,  it  also  becomes  a  factor  affecting  the  movement  of 
grain  to  that  port. 

DIFFERENTIAL  RATES 

Differential  rates  to  ports  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  south 
of  Newr  York,  which  were  agreed  upon  and  made  effective  in 
1877,  were  called  into  existence  by  reason  of  the  advantages 
New  York  then  possessed  in  the  matter  of  ocean  rates  to  the 
markets  of  the  world.  As  compared  with  New  York,  Phila 
delphia  was  given  a  differential  rate  in  its  favor  of  two  cents 
and  Baltimore  a  rate  of  three  cents  per  one  hundred  pounds. 
These  extreme  differentials,  now  somewhat  modified,  are  still 
in  force  as  originally  adopted  and  apply  on  shipments  from 

[71] 


14 

Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  the  adjacent  country  to  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  In  the  twenty  years  passed  since  their  adoption, 
the  conditions  have  greatly  changed.  New  York  no  longer 
possesses  so  distinct  an  advantage  in  ocean  rates,  so  that  the 
reason  for  a  continuation  of  differential  rates  upon  the  basis 
originally  adopted  does  not  now  exist. 

An  investigation  of  the  relation  of  differentials  to  the  rates 
charged  in  1877  and  in  1897  shows  that,  by  the  decline  in  the 
rates  wThich  has  taken  place  during  that  period,  the  differentials 
are  now  even  more  effective  against  New  York  than  when  first 
established.  The  rate  on  wheat  by  rail  from  Chicago  to  New 
York  has  fallen  about  forty  per  cent,  since  1877.  At  that  time 
the  percentage  of  the  differentials  allowed  Philadelphia  and 
Baltimore  were  respectively  ten  per  cent,  and  eighteen  per 
cent,  of  the  rate  on  wheat  charged  from  Chicago  to  these  ports. 
In  1897,  by  reason  of  the  decline  in  the  rate  on  wheat,  the  per 
centage  of  the  differentials  had  increased  to  nineteen  per  cent, 
of  the  rate  to  Philadelphia  and  thirty-one  per  cent,  of  the  rate 
to  Baltimore.  Thus,  by  the  continuous  application  of  fixed 
differentials,  originally  established  to  offset  conditions  existing 
twenty  years  ago,  the  beneficial  effect  to  ports  south  of  New 
York  has  increased  in  proportion  to  the  decline  in  rates,  and 
it  has  been  still  further  augmented  as  New  York  has  been  dis 
possessed  of  the  advantages  she  then  enjoyed. 

Since  it  is  a  well  established  fact  that  all  commodities  of 
low  value  in  proportion  to  weight  are  greatly  affected  by  the 
cost  of  transportation,  the  movement  of  western  products  to 
ports  of  export  is  naturally  along  the  lines  of  lowest  transpor 
tation  cost;  and  while  doubtless  for  many  reasons  great  diffi 
culty  would  be  encountered  in  effecting  a  readjustment,  it  is 
true  that  the  influence  exerted  by  the  differential  rates  is 
entirely  disproportionate  to  the  conditions  now  existing,  and 
therefore  harmful  to  the  interests  of  New  York. 

CONCLUSIONS 

A  careful  consideration  of  the  very  numerous  and  volu- 

[72] 


15 

ruinous  data,  national,  state,  and  municipal,  touching  the  ques 
tion  involved,  together  with  an  intimate  personal  knowledge 
acquired  professionally  of  the  character  and  resources  of  the 
country  at  large  and  its  industrial  developments  during  the 
past  half  century,  lead  me  to  the  following  conclusions: 

1.  New  York,  by  reason  of  its  most  excellent  ocean  har 
bor,  its  superior  geographical  position  in  the  civilized  world,  its 
healthful  climate,  and  central  place  in  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
states,  became  prominent  at  an  early  period  in  the  history  of 
this  country  as  its  commercial  entrepot,  financial  center,  and 
most  populous  city. 

2.  These    conditions   gave   to    New   York   a   substantial 
monopoly  of  the  commerce  of  the  country,  which  continued 
almost  without  interruption  until  a  comparatively  recent  date. 

About  1870  the  industrial  opportunities  offered  in  the  re 
gion  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley,  by 
the  vast  and  richly  inviting  agricultural  and  mineral  wealth, 
railroad  and  water  transportation  facilities,  a  high  protective 
tariff,  and  a  teeming  population  of  energetic  and  enterprising 
people,  aroused  a  spirit  of  competition,  not  only  with  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  states,  but  with  the  world.  This  spirit, 
stimulated  by  the  extortion  referred  to,  rapidly  created  many 
great  manufacturing  establishments,  cities,  and  towns,  the  great 
est  of  which  are  Pittsburg,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Chicago,  and 
St.  Louis. 

Prior  to  1870  and  about  that  time,  the  country  embraced 
by  these  cities  and  tributary  to  them  was  the  field  of  the  com 
mercial  traveler  of  New  York,  but  that  great  area  is  now  almost 
wholly  supplied  by  its  own  cities  and  manufactures,  and  the 
New  York  traveler,  comparatively  speaking,  is  a  ram  acis  in 
that  field.  Merchants  are  constantly  seeking  the  cheapest 
markets  and  the  quick  turns  in  business  which  the  growing  in 
dustries  of  the  West  and  the  financial  power  of  its  cities  are 
furnishing  to  them. 

The  proportion  of  goods  that  has  been  lost  to  New  York's 
trade  cannot  be  followed  to  any  particular  western  city:  it  is 

[73] 


distributed  mainly  among  western  manufacturing  cities  and 
towns,  the  principal  markets  being  Chicago  and  St.  Louis.  Of 
course  it  is  manifest  that  the  remoteness  of  New  York  from 
this  great  heart  of  the  country  enables  it  now  to  withhold 
from  that  city  and  port,  by  its  own  commercial  and  financial 
power,  very  much  of  the  trade  and  commerce  that  springs 
from  it;  indeed,  this  may  be  regarded  as  the  principal  and 
doubtless  the  most  permanent  cause  adverse  to  New  York. 
Other  causes  which  have  contributed  greatly  to  an  early  con- 
sumation  of  the  existing  conditions  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and 
the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes  -have  been  the  undue  govern 
mental  fostering  of  manufacturing  industries;  the  excessive 
tariffs  and  terminal  charges,  and  the  inequitable  differentials 
of  the  railroad  companies  centering  in  New  York.  It  should 
not  be  omitted  in  this  connection  that  the  Infra-mural  chart/ex 
for  transporting  persons  in  Greater  New  York  are  onerous  and » 
compared  with  those  of  other  localities,  affect  unfavorably 
manufacturers  and  their  operatives. 

It  is  believed  that  those  who  have  given  intelligent  and 
unbiased  consideration  to  the  causes x)f  the  declining  commerce 
of  New  York,  and  who  are  opposed  to  all  forms  of  monopoly 
wrhich  impair  or  destroy  the  invigorating  and  healthful  effect 
of  actual  competition  upon  commerce,  will  concur  with  what 
has  been  said. 

The  means  by  which  to  revive  and  restore  to  New  York 
even  a  measurable  degree  of  its  former  commercial  prestige,  in 
the  territory  west  of  the  eightieth  degree  of  longitude,  are  not 
so  clear  as  the  causes  of  its  decline,  because  retro-active  or 
entirely  new  measures  must  be  mainly  depended  upon  for  its 
accomplishment.  If,  however,  the  vast  financial  energies  of 
New  York  could  be  awakened,  united,  and  directed  with  an  eye 
single  to  the  revival  of  this  commerce,  great  results  could  be 
obtained.  I  have  stated  my  belief  that  railroads  are  para 
mount  as  a  means  of  transporting  persons  and  property  in  the 
interior  of  this  country,  and  this  conviction  leads  me  to  the 
conclusion  that  to  them  New  York  must  look  for  relief.  If  not 

[74] 


17 

obtained  through  this  mechanical  appliance,  her  pre-eminence 
as  a  port  of  export  at  least  will  continue  to  decline. 

It  does  not  clearly  appear  that  a  ship  canal  connecting  the 
Great  Lakes  via  the  Hudson  River  with  the  Atlantic  at  New 
York  would  be  a  safe  agency  for  reviving  its  commerce,  but  on 
the  contrary  it  is  almost  manifest  that  it  would  more  firmly 
and  completely  establish  the  conditions  already  existing  in  the 
Great  Lakes  basin  and  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  adverse  to  New 
York.  But  the  active  and  now  powerful  interests  which  are 
promoting  the  construction  of  this  projected  ship  canal,  the 
cities  and  other  great  industries  on  and  adjacent  to  the  shores 
of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  country  west  of  them,  as  well  as  on 
and  adjacent  to  the  Mississippi  River  and  its  tributaries,  are 
united  and  moving  for  their  own  welfare.  New  York  can, 
therefore,  but  regard  it  as  highly  probable  that  the  improve 
ments  of  the  water  ways,  which  now  possess  very  favorable 
public  opinion,  will  be  carried  forward  early  in  this  century. 

I  firmly  belie  ve  that  the  greatest  possible  saving  agent  for 
the  declining  commerce  of  New  York  is  the  railway.  What 
ever  the  comparative  inducements  for  exportation  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  or  by  the  proposed  ship  canal  to  the  Atlantic 
may  become,  the  true  merits  of  the  railway,  mechanical  and  finan 
cial,  are  equal  to  successful  competition,  and,  if  they  can  be 
taken  advantage  of,  the  pre-eminence  of  New  York  will  be 
conserved  in  the  highest  degree  feasible. 

A  line  extending  directly  from  New  York  to  St.  Louis  may 
be  taken  to  illustrate  New  York's  economic  railway.  It  is  the 
axis  through  the  best  and  most  densely  populated  area  west  of 
the  Alleghany  Mountains.  On  each  side  of  this  line  through 
out  its  length  north  and  west  of  the  Ohio  River,  is  an  immense 
and  vastly  capable  area  almost  wholly  dependent  upon  rail 
ways.  It  is  on  this  line  mainly,  or  its  equivalent,  that  New 
York  can  find  relief,  if  it  will,  and  in  a  degree  revive  the  bril 
liant  future  it  possessed  thirty  years  ago  by  demonstrating  the 
true  value  of  the  railway. 

The  true  merits  or  value  of  railways  to  serve  the  people, 

[75] 


18 

can  only  be  found  when  skill  and  honesty  are  combined  in 
their  construction  and  operation.  The  present  status  of  the 
relations  between  the  railways  and  the  public  is: — First,  that 
the  principle  of  pooling  earnings  has  been  rejected  by  the  peo 
ple.  Second,  that  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  is 
confessedly  powerless  to  conserve  equitable  relations  between 
the  people  and  the  railroads.  Third,  that  the  stupendous  con 
solidations  of  railways  now  taking  place  are  but  the  irrepres 
sible  tendency  toward  government  ownership,  the  principal 
merits  of  which  would  be  uniform  classification  and  rates 
throughout  the  United  States,  thus  placing  New  York  and 
every  city  and  locality  upon  its  natural  merits. 


[76] 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  PUBLICATIONS  Ne<w  Series— Vol.  /.,  No  6. 


Untoersttp  of 


Vol.  I  MAY,  1902  No.  3 


A  Statistical  Study  of  Illinois  High  Schools 

By 


FREDERICK  GORDON  BONSER,  B,S. 

Fellow  in  Psychology 


INTRODUCTION 


Studies  of  the  nature  of  the  following  are  possible  only 
through  the  courteous  cooperation  of  many  people,— in  this  case, 
the  courtesy  of  the  superintendents  and  principals  of  the  Illi 
nois  High  Schools  ;  and  the  department  of  education  of  the 
University,  under  the  general  direction  of  which  the  study  was 
made,  wishes  to  acknowledge  to  them  its  obligation  for  the 
general  response  to  its  request  for  information.  The  schools 
covered  are  widely  distributed  and  diverse  in  character,  yet 
each  expresses  more  or  less  exactly  the  educational  ideal  of  its 
community  and  becomes  more  perfect  as  the  ideal  is  raised. 
Intelligent  comparison  is  one  of  the  most  potent  means  of  rais 
ing  that  ideal,  and  every  school-man  in  our  state  will  appreci 
ate  the  value  of  Mr.  Bonser's  work  in  making  such  a  compari 
son  possible. 

EDWIN  G.  DEXTER, 

Professor  of  Education. 
University  of  Illinois,  May,  1902. 


A  STATISTICAL  STUDY  OF  ILLINOIS 
HIGH    SCHOOLS 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION  AND  NATURE  OF  THE  STUDY 

In  November,  1900,  there  was  mailed  to  each  of  the  311 
high  schools  of  Illinois,  a  copy  of  the  regular  blank  used  by  the 
University  of  Illinois  in  securing  reports  from  the  accredited 
schools,  with  a  request  that  it  be  filled  out  and  returned.  The 
mailing  list  was  made  up  from  Table  XIX.  of  the  Report  of  the 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  for  1898,  and  from  Table 
XLII.  of  the  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edu 
cation  for  1897-98.  The  material  utilized  in  this  study  is  de 
rived  from  the  answers  to  the  following  questions  contained 
in  the  report  blank: 

1.  Number  of  years  covered  by  high  school  course  of  study. 

2.  Number  of  weeks  in  the  school  year. 

3.  Curriculum. 

a.  Subjects  taught. 

b.  Years  in  which  subjects  are  taught. 

c.  Number  of  recitation  periods  per  week  in  each  subject. 

d.  Number  of  weeks  given  to  each  subject. 

e.  Length  of  recitations,  in  minutes. 

f.  Total  time  given  to  each  subject,  in  hours  of  sixty  minutes. 

g.  Text-books  used  in  each  subject. 

4.  Report  on  teachers. 

a.  Number  of  teachers. 

b.  Number  who  are  normal  graduates. 

c.  Number  who  are  college  graduates. 

d.  Number  who  are  graduates  of  high  schools  only. 

e.  Number  who  have  higher  degrees. 

i.     Master's.  2.     Doctor's. 

5.  Number  of  pupils  enrolled  in  the  high  school  department. 

a.     Boys.  b.     Girls.  c.     Total. 

6.  Number  in  the  graduating  class  of  1900. 

a.     Boys.  b.     Girls.  c.     Total. 

Of  the  311  schools  to  which  blanks  were  sent,  reports  were 
received  from  297,  or  95.5  per  cent.  Of  these  184  are  on  the 
accredited  list  of  the  State  University,  and  the  remaining  113 

are  not  accredited. 

[79] 


The  data  for  these  297  schools,  in  which  nearly  40,000 
pupils  receive  secondary  instruction,  have  been  summarized 
and  reduced  to  percentages.  A  brief  discussion  of  the  length 
of  the  high  school  courses  and  of  the  school  year  precedes  the 
summaries  for  the  curriculum  as  a  whole. 

For  convenience  the  subjects  of  the  curriculum  are  divided 
into  five  groups:  mathematics  ;  English  and  foreign  languages; 
history,  civics,  and  political  economy ;  physical  and  biological 
sciences ;  and  miscellaneous  subjects.  The  subjects  making  up 
each  group,  together  with  the  appropriate  data,  are  arranged 
in  tabular  form. 

The  interpretation  of  these  tables  is  not  difficult.  For  ex 
ample,  in  Table  L,  referring  to  algebra,  it  may  first  be  noted 
that  it  is  offered  in  all  of  the  schools  reporting.  Then,  under 
"  Year  Taught",  the  10.6  in  the  first  column  means  that  10.6 
per  cent,  of  the  schools  offer  algebra  in  the  first  year,  and  the 

65.5  jin    the    column    headed  1,  2,  means  that  65.5  per  cent, 
offer  it  in  both  the  first  and  second  years.     Again,  under  "Rec 
itations  a  Week",  the  93.2  in  the  column  headed  5  indicates 
that  93.2  per  cent,  of  the  schools  have  5  recitations  a  week 
in  algebra  ;  and  under  "Number  of  Weeks  Given",  the  10.8  in 
the  column  headed  37 — 40  means  that  10.8  per  cent,  of  the 
schools  teach  algebra  from  37  to  40  weeks.     Under  "Length  of 
Recitations",  the  49.1  in  the  column  headed  40  means  that  49.1 
per  cent,  of  the  schools  give  to  algebra  a  recitation  period  of 
forty  minutes  ;  and  under  "Total  Number  of  Hours  given",  the 

26.6  in  the  column  headed  80 — 100  means  that  26.6  per  cent, 
of  them  give  a  total  of  80  to  100  hours  to  algebra,     This  mode 
of  interpretation  applies  to  the  tables  throughout,  with  only 
this  difference  :     as  algebra  is  the  only  branch  taught  in  all  the 
schools  reporting,  the  various  percentages  are  in  no  other  case 
percentages  of  the  total  number  of  schools,  but  only   of  the 
number  teaching  the  subject.     The  same  is  true  in  the  discus 
sions  of  the  tables  unless  otherwise  clearly  stated. 

Following  each  table  is  a  short  summary  for  each  of  the 

subjects  found  in  that  group,  indicating  the  chief  points  of  in- 

[80] 


terest  concerning  it.  This  is  followed  by  the  statistics  concern 
ing  the  number  and  status  of  teachers,  and  finally  the  data  of 
enrollment  and  graduation  are  briefly  summarized. 

LENGTH  OF  COURSES  AND  OF  THE  SCHOOL  YEAR 

Percentages  of  schools  whose  courses  are  three,  four,  and 
five  years,  respectively: 

3  years. ..  .25.2.      4  years ....  73.6.       5  years....!. 

The  percentage  of  schools  having  only  three-year  courses 
is  still  high,  but  is  yearly  diminishing.1  Reports  were  received 
from  several  schools  of  the  state  whose  courses  were  for  but 
two  years,  but  these  were  not  included,  not  falling  under  the 
definition  of  the  term  high  school  as  used  in  this  study.  A  few 
five  year  courses  are  noted.  The  pushing  downward  of  some 
of  the  subjects,  as  foreign  languages  and  mathematics,  tends  to 
bring  the  eighth  grade,  and  probably  the  seventh  as  well,  under 
the  administration  of  the  high  school.  The  tendency  is  not  to 
lengthen  the  pre-college  course,  but  to  apportion  more  peda- 
gogically  the  several  subjects  within  the  time  limits  already 
embraced  by  the  twelve  years  devoted  to  elementary  and  sec 
ondary  training. 

Percentages  of  schools  whose  years  are  of  the  several 
numbers  of  weeks. 

28  weeks 3    33  weeks 7    36  weeks 18.   39  weeks 10.5 

30  weeks 1.3    34  weeks. ..  20.    37  weeks..  .  3.4   40  weeks 14.9 

32  weeks 2.3    35  weeks 4.8    38  weeks. ...  19.3   42  weeks 7 

Less  than  5  per  cent,  of  the  schools  have  a  shorter  year 
than  thirty-four  weeks,  and  in  almost  half  of  them  it  ranges 
from  thirty-eight  to  forty  weeks.  This  increased  length  of  the 
school  year  is  a  gratifying  indication  of  progress. 

THE  CURRICULUM  AS  A  WHOLE 

The  number  of  subjects  offered  in  individual  high  schools 
varies  from  ten  to  thirty.  The  school  having  but  one  or  two 
teachers  does  well  if  ten  are  creditably  taught;  while  the 

1  See  Reports  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  Introduction,  and 
Summary  of  High  School  Statistics. 

[81] 


6 

school  with  fifteen,  thirty,  or  fifty  teachers,  may  consistently 
make  its  curriculum  cover  the  whole  field  of  secondary  subject- 
matter.  Forty-nine  different  subjects  are  found  in  the  curric 
ula  of  Illinois  secondary  schools.  Eleven  of  these  may  be 
termed  constants,  each  of  them  occurring  in  more  than  75  per 
cent,  of  the  schools,  and  eight  of  them  in  more  than  85  per 
cent.  Exact  percentages  for  each  may  be  seen  by  referring  to 
the  appropriate  tables.  These  eleven  subjects,  in  the  order  of 
their  prominence,  are  algebra,  geometry,  physics,  botany,  Latin, 
English  literature,  zoology,  physiology,  general  history,  civics, 
and  physiography.  Chemistry,  coming  next,  is  found  in  50  per 
cent,  of  the  schools,  and  German  in  34.6  per  cent. 

These  studies  furnish  all  the  mental  pabulum  insisted 
upon  as  essential  to  the  symmetrical  development  of  the  pu 
pils'  powers  and  capacities.  Mathematics,  literature,  language, 
and  science,  each  has  its  place  in  almost  every  high  school  of 
our  state.  The  belief  that  another  constant  is  essential  to  the 
completeness  of  this  list,  namely,  a  provision  for  motor  train 
ing,  is  rapidly  growing,  but  as  yet  has  found  but  slight  expres 
sion  in  the  actual  practice  of  our  high  schools.  A  considerable 
number  of  minor  subjects,  each  found  in  only  small  percent 
ages  of  the  schools,  are  offered,  in  most  cases,  no  doubt,  in  re 
sponse  to  local  demand. 

MATHEMATICS 

Not  a  few  of  the  secondary  schools  of  Illinois  offer  an  un 
interrupted  four  years'  course  in  mathematics,  and  courses  are 
found  embracing  all  branches  from  arithmetic  to  trigonome 
try  and  descriptive  geometry.  Algebra  is  taught  in  every 
school  reporting,  and  it  is  commonly  begun  in  the  first  year. 
Geometry  follows  in  most  cases,  but  in  four  schools  algebra 
and  geometry  are  reported  as  beginning  simultaneously.  The 
committee  on  college  entrance  requirements  especially  rec 
ommends  that  in  all  cases  the  study  of  geometry  should  begin 

i  Report  of  the  Committee    on  College  Entrance   Requirements,  University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1899,  p.  145. 

[82] 


before  that  of^algebra.1  That  this  recommendation  is  not  ob 
served  by  most  Illinois  high  schools  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
algebra  is  taught  in  the  first  year  in  87.6  per  cent,  of  the 
schools,  while  geometry  is  taught  in  that  year  in  only  2  per 
cent.  Nevertheless,  the  reports  indicate  that  in  a  very  few 
cases  concrete  geometry  is  taught  in  the  grades,  and  that  in  a 
small  but  growing  number  algebra  is  begun  in  the  seventh  or 
eighth  school  year. 

A  number  of  the  large  high  schools  teach  trigonometry  and 
advanced  algebra.  Rockf ord,  for  example,  in  addition  to  arith 
metic  and  bookkeeping,  both  given  in  the  first  year,  gives  alge 
bra  the  first  year,  plane  geometry  the  second,  solid  geometry 
the  first  half  of  the  third,  college  algebra  the  second  half  of 
the  third,  and  trigonometry  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  year. 

ALGEBRA 

Algebra  is  the  only  subject  reported  by  every  school  con 
sidered,  and  in  a  few  it  is  begun  in  the  grades. 

Reference  to  Table  I.  shows  that  in  seven-eighths  of  the 
schools  the  course  for  the  first  year  contains  algebra  ;  that  10 
per  cent,  give  it  in  the  first  year  only  ;  that  65  per  cent,  con 
tinue  the  subject  through  the  whole  or  a  part  of  the  second 
year ;  and  that  6  per  cent,  give  it  in  the  second  and  third  years, 
5  per  cent,  in  the  first  and  third,  and  small  percentages  in  each 
of  several  other  combinations  of  years  of  the  course.  Three 
schools  offer  advanced  algebra  in  the  fourth  year. 

Over  93  per  cent,  of  the  schools  have  five  recitations  a 
week  in  algebra  ;  5  per  cent,  have  four — among  which  are  the 
fourteen  Chicago  schools  ;  and  three  schools  have  respectively 
two,  two  and  a  half,  and  three  recitations  a  week. 

Almost  20  per  cent,  of  the  schools  give  algebra  from  26  to 
40  weeks,  that  is,  for  one  full  school  year  ;  43  per  cent,  give  it 
from  50  to  60  w^eeks — a  year  arid  a  half  ;  29  per  cent,  give  it 
from  61  to  80  weeks,  or,  in  most  cases,  for  two  full  years  ;  and 
a  small  percentage  offer  it  for  a  longer  period,  as  shown  in  the 
table. 

[83] 


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PERCENTAGES  OF  SCHOOLS  USING  THE  SEVERAL  TEXT-BOOKS. 


Wentworth 47.8 

Milne 24.4 

Wells 18.8 

Robinson 1.9 

Sheldon 1.3 


Wentworth 63.5 

Wells 14.9 

Phillips  &  Fisher. .  6.8 

White 3.7 

VanVelzer&  Schutt  2.3 


Wentworth 64.2 

Wells 14.2 


Milne 15.5 

White 13.3 

Beman  &  Smith...  n.i 

Ray's  Higher n.i 

Wentworth...  ii.i 


Rowe 19.5 

Rogers  &  Williams  16. 

Ellis 14.2 

Bryant  &  Stratton..  10.6 

Packard 7.1 

Gay 5.3 


ALGEBRA1. 

Brown 

White 

Sensensign 

Olney 

Taylor 


GEOMETRY 


•9 
.6 

.6 
.6 
.6 


Milne 2.3 

Beman  &  Smith. . .  2.1 

Olney 1.3 

Macnie 6 

Stewart 6 

TRIGONOMETRY 

Davies 7.1 

Crocket 7.1 

ARITHMETIC 

Cook  &  Cropsy....  8.8 

Werner 6.6 

Bailey 4.4 

Hall 4.4 

Walsh 4.4 

BOOKKEEPING 

Goodyear , ..  3.5 

Marshall 3.5 

Meservey 3.5 

Tablet  System 3.5 

Beman  &  Smith...  1.7 

Card 1.7 


Hall  &  Knight 6 

Appleton 3 

Bowser 3 

Bradbury 3 

Schuyler 3 


Davis 

Holpin 

Maine 

Welsh 

Winchester's  Con.. 


Olney. 


7-: 


Saddler 2.2 

Thompson 2.2 

Williams 2.2 

Stoddard's  Oral..  2.2 


Drew 1.7 

Gardner 1.7 

Gregory 1.7 

Musselman 1.7 

Seymore  &  Eaton..  1.7 


Recitations  are  40  minutes  in  length  in  49  per  cent,  of  the 
schools,  45  minutes  in  22  per  cent.,  30  minutes  in  11  per  cent., 
and  smaller  percentages  have  recitations  of  20,  25,  35,  50,  55, 
and  60  minutes,  respectively. 

The  total  time  devoted  to  the  subject  by  the  individual 
school  varies  from  41  hours  to  300.  Over  60  per  cent,  of  the 
schools — those  devoting  a  year  and  a  half  or  a  year  and  two- 
thirds  to  the  study — give  from  140  to  200  hours  ;  18  per  cent. 

i  Concerning  interpretation,  see  page  4. 

[85] 


10 

give  from  200  to  240  hours  ;  and  small  percentages  give  still 
more  time,  as  may  be  seen  in  detail  by  reference  to  the  table. 
Of  the  fifteen  algebras  in  use,  the  favorite  text  is  Went- 
worth's,  found  in  47.8  per  cent,  of  the  schools.  Milne's  is  used 
in  24.4  per  cent.;  Wells's  in  18.8  per  cent.;  and  each  of  the 
other  'twelve  books  listed  is  used  by  a  small  percentage,  as 
given  fully  in  Table  T. 

PLANE  GEOMETRY 

Plane  Geometry  is  not  in  every  curriculum  reported,  but  it 
is  taught  in  291  of  the  schools,  or  97.9  per  cent,  of  them.  Fol 
lowing  algebra  in  most  cases,  it  is  given  in  the  second  year  in 
27  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  in  the  third  in  38  per  cent.,  and 
in  a  part  of  both  the  second  and  third  years  in  19  per  cent.  In 
6  per  cent,  it  is  given  in  the  third  and  fourth  years  ;  and  in  4 
per  cent,  in  the  fourth  year  only. 

In  93  per  cent,  of  these  schools  recitations  in  plane  geome 
try  occur  five  times  a  week  ;  in  5.8  per  cent.,  but  four  times  a 
week,  and  in  two  schools,  but  three  times  each  week. 

The  number  of  weeks  devoted  to  this  subject  varies  from 
10  to  80.  and  the  total  number  of  hours,  from  50  to  280.  From 
26  to  40  weeks — a  full  school  year — are  given  to  it  by  over  84 
per  cent,  of  the  schools,  the  total  number  of  hours  ranging 
from  85  to  160.  The  small  percentages  in  which  the  time  is 
greater  or  less  than  this  may  be  seen  by  reference,  to  Table  I. 

The  percentages  expressing  the  length  of  recitation  peri 
ods  are  practically  the  same  as  those  for  algebra,  48  per  cenfc. 
giving  40-minute  periods,  21  per  cent.  45  minutes,  and  the  re 
maining  31  per  cent,  having  periods  ranging  all  the  way  from 
twenty  minutes  to  an  hour  and  a  half. 

Fifteen  texts  are  used  in  geometry,  Wentworth's  being  the 
most  popular,  as  in  algebra,  and  leading  with  63.5  per  cent,  of 
the  schools.  Wells's  text  is  used  in  14.9  per  cent.;  Phillips  and 
Fisher's  in  6.8  per  cent. ;  and  the  various  other  texts  in  smaller 
percentages,  indicated  fully  in  the  table.  A  single  school 
teaches  geometry  without  the  use  of  any  text. 

[86| 


11 

SOLID  GEOMETRY 

This  subject  is  offered  in  189,  or  93.4  per  cent,  of  the 
schools,  5  per  cent,  of  them  giving  it  in  the  second  year,  52  per 
cent,  in  the  third,  and  42  per  cent,  in  the  fourth-.  Five  recita 
tions  a  week  is  the  rule,  this  practice  prevailing  in  93  per  cent, 
of  the  schools.  Four  periods  a  week  are  given  to  it  in  5.8  per 
cent.,  and  a  single  school  gives  it  but  three. 

The  number  of  weeks  given  to  solid  geometry  varies  from 
9,  in  3  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  to  55  in  1  per  cent.  Forty-seven 
per  cent.,  however,  give  it  from  20  to  25  weeks  (a  little  over 
half  a  year) ;  20  per  cent.,  from  16  to  19  weeks  (a  half  year  ex 
actly  in  most  cases);  and  14  per  cent.,  10  to  15  weeks— a  little 
less  than  half  a  year.  From  this  it  is  seen  that  although  the 
total  time  devoted  to  this  subject  varies  in  individual  schools 
from  12  hours  to  180,  the  majority  give  a  total  ranging  from  50 
to  90  hours. 

Fifty-three  per  cent,  of  the  schools  offering  solid  geometry 
give  forty  minutes  to  recitations  ;  27  per  cent.,  45  minutes  ;  7 
per  cent.  35  minutes  ;  6  per  cent.,  30  minutes  ;  and  the  remain 
der,  in  small  percentages,  the  several  other  standard  periods 
in  about  equal  number. 

TRIGONOMETRY 

Trigonometry  is  taught  in  16  schools,  or  in  5.3  per  cent,  of 
all.  In  81  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  given  in  the  fourth  year,  the 
other  three  giving  it  in  the  third.  The  number  of  recitations 
a  week  is  uniformly  five.  In  60  per  cent,  of  the  schools  from 
16  to  19  weeks  (a  half  year)  are  devoted  to  the  subject,  and  the 
remaining  40  per  cent,  give  it  a  full  year.  The  total  time 
given  is  40  to  70  hours  in  68  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  80  to  120 
hours  in  25  per  cent.,  and  160  to  180  hours  in  6  per  cent. 

Five  texts  are  used  in  trigonometry,  Wentworth  leading 
with  64.2  per  cent.,  Wells  standing  next  with  14.2  per  cent., 
and  Davis,  Crockett,  and  Olney  following  with  small  percent 
ages,  about  equally  divided  between  them. 

[87] 


12 

ARITHMETIC 

Arithmetic  is  included  in  the  curricula  of  15.1  per  cent,  of 
the  high  schools  of  Illinois,  in  45  by  number.  In  40  per  cent, 
of  these  it  is  given  in  the  first  year  ;  in  20  per  cent.,  in  the 
second  ;  in  75  per  cent,  in  the  third  ;  and  in  22  per  cent.,  in  the 
fourth.  Two  and  a  half  per  cent,  continue  it  through  the  first 
and  a  part  of  the  second  year,  and  7  per  cent,  take  it  up  in  the 
fourth  year,  after  having  dropped  it  at  the  close  of  the  first. 
In  all  but  6  per  cent,  of  the  schools  there  are  five  recitations  a 
week  ;  in  4  per  cent,  there  are  but  four  ;  and  in  2  per  cent, 
only  three. 

Arithmetic  is  given  but  7  to  9  weeks  in  4.5  per  cent,  of  the 
schools,  while  11  per  cent,  give  it  45  to  50  weeks.  In  34  per 
cent,  the  time  given  is  half  a  year,  while  in  about  40  per  cent, 
it  is  a  full  year.  Almost  60  per  cent,  give  it  a  total  of  40  to  80 
hours,  the  remaining  40  per  cent,  allotting  it  85  to  160  hours. 

Recitation  periods  vary  from  20  minutes  (in  2  per  cent.)  to 
an  hour  (in  2  per  cent.),  11  per  cent,  having  a  35-minute  per 
iod,  42  per  cent,  having  a  40-minute,  and  24  per  cent,  a  45-min- 
ute  period. 

Fourteen  texts  are  used,  Milne  leading  with  15.5  per  cent., 
White  coming  second  with  13.3  per  cent.,  and  the  percentages 
for  the  other  twelve  texts  being  as  indicated  in  Table  I. 

BOOKKEEPING 

The  popularity  of  bookkeeping  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  it 
is  found  in  the  curricula  of  86  of  the  Illinois  high  schools, 
which  is  28.2  per  cent,  of  them.  In  31  per  cent,  of  these  it  is 
given  in  the  first  year  ;  in  17  per  cent,  in  the  second ;  in  15  per 
cent,  in  the  third  ;  in  the  same  number  in  the  fourth ;  and  in  19 
per  cent,  it  is  continued  through  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
years.  There  are  five  recitations  a  week  in  71  per  cent,  of  the 
schools ;  four,  in  22  per  cent,  while  in  5  per  cent,  there  are  but 
two,  and  a  single  school  reports  ten.  Thirty-two  per  cent,  give 
a  half  year's  work  to  Bookkeeping,  55  per  cent,  give  it  from  26 

[88] 


13 

to  40  weeks — a  full  year  in  most  cases,  and  the  remaining  12 
per  cent,  give  it  more  than  a  year,  from  50  to  80  weeks,  Table 
I.  giving  the  specific  percentages. 

Recitation  periods  vary  from  20  minutes  to  90  minutes,  the 
40-minute  period  predominating  and  occurring  in  38  per  cent, 
of  the  schools,  while  16  per  cent,  have  the  45-minute  period, 
and  20  per  cent,  a  period  of  50  minutes. 

The  total  time  devoted  to  bookkeeping  varies  from  a  min 
imum  of  12  to  25  hours,  in  1  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  to  a 
maximum  of  300,  in  another  1  per  cent. ;  but  25  per  cent,  give 
it  from  51  to  60  hours,  and  40  per  cent,  give  it  141  to  160  hours. 

Seventeen  texts  are  used  in  this  study.  Rowe,  the  most 
popular,  is  found  in  19.5  per  cent,  of  the  schools;  Roger  and 
Williams,  a  close  second,  in  16  per  cent.  ;  Ellis,  in  14.2  per 
cent. ;  and  Bryant  and  Stratton,  in  10.6  per  cent. 

DESCRIPTIVE  GEOMETRY 

This  branch  is  taught  in  a  single  school,  five  40-minute 
periods  a  week  being  given  to  it  for  half  of  the  second  year. 
The  total  time  devoted  to  the  subject  is  70  hours. 

ENGLISH  AND  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES 

In  a  small  percentage  of  the  high  schools  of  Illinois  the 
total  time  devoted  to  English  is  but  a  year  and  a  half,  while  a 
larger  number  give  it  two  years.  Most  of  the  larger  schools 
and  many  of  the  smaller  ones  not  only  offer,  but  require,  four 
full  years  of  English.  That  the  higher  technicalities  of  gram 
mar  belong  properly  in  the  secondary  school  and  not  in  the 
grades  is  coming  to  be  recognized,  as  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
nearly  5  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools  include  grammar  in  their 
curricula.  One  of  the  most  exemplary  courses  in  English  is 
that  offered  by  the  Decatur  high  school.  This  is  a  very  close 
approximation  to  the  course  suggested  by  the  Committee  of 
Ten.1  Composition  work,  including  Rhetoric,  is  given  two 
periods  each  week  throughout  the  course,  with  three  recita- 

1Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten,  Amer.  Book  Co.  1894,  pp.  90-91. 

[89] 


14 

tions  a  week ;  while  English  Grammar  is  given  twenty  weeks 
of  the  fourth  year,  with  recitations  three  times  each  week. 

Twenty-three  high  schools  in  Illinois  offer  no  foreign  lan 
guage  work.  In  all  those  giving  it,  Latin  is  reported  with  but 
three  exceptions.  Highland,  Mazon,  and  Milledgeville  report 
German  but  no  Latin.  German  is  much  more  popular  than 
French,  the  former  being  taught  in  more  than  a  third  of  the 
schools,  while  the  latter  is  found  in  but  8.7  per  cent.  Greek  is 
taught  in  11.4  per  cent.  Moline  is  the  only  school  which  has 
introduced  Spanish  into  its  curriculum.  The  north  Park  high 
school  (Chicago)  offers  Swedish  for  three  years,  in  response  to 
an  influential  Swedish  environment. 

In  by  far  the  larger  number  of  cases  Latin  is  studied  for 
four  years.  A  large  percentage  of  the  schools  giving  it  but 
three  years  are  schools  whose  curricula  cover  only  that  period. 
While  nearly  a  fourth  of  the  courses  in  German  are  for  four 
years,  the  majority  are  for  two  years — most  frequently  the  last 
two  of  the  curriculum. 

A  small  percentage  of  the  high  schools  give  but  a  single 
year  to  foreign  language  study. 

ENGLISH  GRAMMAR 

English  Grammar  is  taught  in  14  of  the  secondary  schools 
of  Illinois,  71  per  cent,  of  these  giving  it  in  the  first  year.  In 
the  remainder  it  is  placed  in  the  fourth  year,  after  the  work  in 
rhetoric  and  literature,  when  the  pupil's  age  and  training  ena 
ble  him  to  deal  thoroughly  with  the  difficulties  of  technical 
grammar.  In  11  per  cent,  it  is  given  three  periods  a  week,  and 
in  the  remainder,  five  periods.  Sixty-two  per  cent,  give  a  half 
year  to  the  subject,  and  the  others  a  full  year,  the  total  time 
ranging  from  40  to  80  hours  in  70  per  cent.,  and  from  81  to  140 
in  the  remaining  30  per  cent.  The  recitation  period  is  35  min 
utes  in  25  per  cent,  of  the  schools  and  40  minutes  in  37  per  cent. 

Nine  texts  are  used  in  English  Grammar,  Swinton,  report 
ed  in  20  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  being  in  the  lead.  Table  II. 
gives  the  smaller  percentages  for  the  other  eight  texts. 

[90] 


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16 


PERCENTAGES  OF  THE  VARIOUS  TEXTS  USED  IN  LANGUAGE  WORK 


Swinton, 
Harvey.. 
Hyde... 


Lockwood 

Herrick  &  Damon. 
Genung 

Scott  &  Denney... 

Hill 

Buckler , 

Kellogg 

Waddy 


Reed  &  Kellogg 
Williams. . 


20. 

13.3 

I3-S 

21-3 
18.8 

10.2 
8.2 

7.6 
4-7 
4-1 

3-8 

2.8 

2.8 


Painter 35.7 

Pancoast 16. 

Stopford  A.  Brooke  14. 

Shaw 5.9 

Swinton 4.7 

Watkins'Amer.  Lit.  3.5 

Kellogg 2.9 

Matthews 2.3 

Collar  and  Daniel..  67.1 

Harkness 12.1 

Bennett 5. 

Fuell  &  Fowler.. . .  4.2 

Joynes-Meissner.. .  52. 

Thomas 21.8 

Collar 15.6 

Gueber...  2. 


Keetels 66.6 

Chardenal., 9.5 


White 53.4 


ENGLISH  GRAMMAR' 

Maxwell 13.3 

Reed  &  Kellogg..     13.3 
Gowdy 6.6 

COMPOSITION  AND  RHETORIC 


Lytes 6.6 

Meade 66 

Wiseley 6.6 


Chittenden  

1.9 

Bell....  

•3 

Cairns  

1.6 

Buck  

•3 

Lewis  

1.5 

Carpenter  

•3 

(  Whitney  & 
(  Lockwood  

1-5 

Quack  enbos  

•3 

Hart  

1.2 

Raub  

•3 

Butler  

•9 

Sheldon  

•3 

Meade  

•9 

Shaw  

•3 

Newcomer  

•9 

(  Southworth  & 
(  Goddard  

•3 

Keeler  &  Davis.. 

•9 

Swinton  

•3 

Welsh  

.6 

ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Meiklejohn  

•7 

Johnson  

.6 

Raub  

•7 

Morgan  

.6 

Trimble  

•7 

Pattee  

.6 

Blaisdell  

.1 

Rovce  

.6 

Halleck  

•i 

Scudder  

.6 

Cathearts  

.6 

Shair  

.6 

Emery  

.       .6 

Welsh  

.6 

Irish  

.       .6 

Williams  &  Rogers. 

.6 

LATIN 


Scudder.. 

Jones 

Coy 

Comstock 


GERMAN 


Keller.. 
Ahn. . . . 
Martin. 
Otto... 


3-8 
3- 


2. 
I. 
I. 
I. 


FRENCH 

Whitney 9.5 

de  Bordes 4-7 

GREEK 
Goodwin ....     38.8        Pattengill 


Bellum  &  Helvetius  .4 
Harper  &  Burgess..  .4 
Lindsey  &  Rollin...  .4 
Sunley  &  Storke. ..  .4 

Sanders i. 

Schmitz i. 

Worman..  i. 


Dreyspring 4.7 

Edger 4.7 

.     4.8        Kelsey 2.4 


i  Concerning  interpretation,  see  p.  4. 


[92] 


17 

ENGLISH  COMPOSITION 

English  Composition,  as  such,  is  reported  from  72.9  per 
cent,  of  the  schools,  which  by  number  is  217,  while  12.1  per 
cent,  report  it  as  included  with  rhetoric.  In  47  per  cent,  of  the 
schools  offering  English  Composition,  this  work  comes  in  the 
first  year,  and  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  years  are  each  al 
lotted  to  it  by  small  percentages.  Twenty-one  per  cent,  give  it 
during  the  first  year  and  through  the  whole  or  a  part  of  the 
second  ;  10  per  cent,  give  it  throughout  the  four  years  ;  and  15 
per  cent,  offer  it  in  the  first,  second,  and  fourth  years. 

The  number  of  recitations  given  in  composition  is  by  no 
means  uniform.  Eight  per  cent,  give  it  one  period  a  week,  10 
per  cent,  give  it  two  periods,  5  per  cent,  give  three,  9  per  cent, 
give  four  and  61  per  cent,  give  five,  while  4  per  cent,  report 
four  periods  for  a  part  of  the  course  and  five  for  a  part. 

Seven  per  cent,  of  the  schools  give  the  subject  less  than 
one  year,  about  50  per  cent  give  it  a  full  year,  while  the  re 
maining  43  per  cent,  give  it  for  a  longer  time,  the  maximum 
number  of  weeks  being  from  120  to  150  in  6  per  cent,  of  the 
courses.  Table  II.  gives  specific  percentages  for  the  various 
periods  of  time. 

The  total  time  given  to  composition  varies  from  a  mini 
mum  of  18  hours  to  a  maximum  of  560  hours.  Fifty  per  cent, 
of  the  schools  teaching  it  give  a  total  of  50  to  120  hours  ;  29 
per  cent.,  160  to  200  hours  ;  and  15  per  cent.,  200  to  360  hours. 

RHETORIC 

Formal  rhetoric  is  reported  from  61.8  per  cent.,  or  184,  of 
the  297  schools  under  discussion,  while  26  per  cent,  of  them 
report  rhetoric  as  included  with  composition.  Of  those  schools 
reporting  rhetoric  specifically,  18  per  cent,  teach  it  in  the  first 
year;  36  per  cent,  in  the  second;  15  per  cent,  in  the  third;  3 
per  cent,  in  the  fourth  ;  8  per  cent,  in  the  first  and  second  years; 
and  4  per  cent,  continue  it  through  the  four  years.  Small  per 
centages  give  other  combinations  of  years,  as  may  be  seen  by 
reference  to  Table  II. 

[93] 


18 

There  is  one  recitation  a  week  in  2  per  cent,  of  the  schools  ; 
there  are  two  recitations  in  7  per  cent.  ;  three,  in  9  per  cent. ; 
four,  in  7  per  cent. ;  and  five,  in  the  remaining  73  per  cent 
The  time  devoted  to  rhetoric  varies  from  10  weeks  to  150,  the 
total  number  of  hours  ranging  from  30  to  400.  In  59  per  cent, 
however,  the  time  is  between  26  and  40  weeks, — a  full  year's 
work  in  most  cases, — or  60  to  120  hours.  Detailed  percentages 
are  given  in  Table  II. 

For  composition  and  rhetoric,  twenty-nine  texts  are  used. 
Lockwood,  in  21.3  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  is  the  favorite ;  Her- 
rick  and  Damon  follows  with  18.8  per  cent. ;  Genung  ranks 
next,  with  10.2  per  cent.;  and  Scott  and  Denney,  with  8.2  per  cent. 

ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

No  discrimination  is  here  made  between  English  and 
American  literature,  the  term  English  literature  standing  for 
literature  in  the  English  language,  This  subject  is  offered  by 
83.3  per  cent  of  the  schools.  Two  per  cent,  give  it  in  the  first 
year  only ;  2  per  cent,  in  the  second ;  12  per  cent,  in  the  third  ; 
11  per  cent,  in  the  fourth  ;  13  per  cent,  offer  it  during  the  last 
three  years  ;  14  per  cent,  during  the  last  two  years  ;  and  22  per 
cent,  continue  it  throughout  the  four  years. 

A  single  school  gives  but  one  recitation  a  week,  while  6 
per  cent,  give  two,  5  per  cent,  give  three,  8  per  cent,  give  four, 
and  71  per  cent,  give  five.  Three  per  cent,  devote  from  20  to 
25  weeks  to  literature  ;  25  per  cent,  give  it  from  34  to  40  weeks 
—or  one  full  year's  work ;  28  per  cent,  offer  from  41  to  80 
weeks ;  while  the  remaining  43  per  cent,  give  from  81  to  150 
weeks  to  it,  or  from  two  and  one  half  to  four  years.  This  is  a 
total  number  of  hours  varying  from  40,  in  a  single  school,  to 
600  in  two  schools,  with  30  per  cent,  lying  between  140  and  180 
hours  and  38  per  cent,  between  200  and  320  hours.  Table  II. 
gives  more  specific  percentages. 

Recitation  periods  for  literature  range  from  15  minutes  to 
55  minutes.  The  majority  of  the  schools,  however  give  40  or 
45-minute  periods  ;  49  per  cent,  the  former,  and  1 7  per  cent  the 
latter. 

[94] 


19 

Twenty-four  text-books  are  used  in  literature.  Of  these 
Painter  leads,  with  35.7  per  cent.  Pancoast  is  next,  with  16  per 
cent ;  and  Stopford  A.  Brook  follows  with  14  per  cent. 

LATIN 

Latin  is  reported  by  265  of  the  Illinois  high  schools,  89.9 
per  cent,  of  them.  Fifty-two  per  cent,  of  this  number  give  four 
years  to  it ;  10  per  cent,  the  last  three  years ;  5  per  cent,  the 
last  two  years  ;  and  13  per  cent,  the  first  three  years.  Four 
per  cent,  give  it  in  the  fourth  year  only  ;  two  per  cent,  in  the 
third  year  only ;  and  8  per  cent,  in  the  second  year  only.  In 
91  per  cent,  of  the  schools  there  are  five  recitations  a  week,  and 
in  6  per  cent,  there  are  four. 

In  12  per  cent,  of  the  schools  Latin  is  given  from  71  to  80 
weeks ;  in  8  per  cent,  from  81  to  100  weeks  ;  in  22  per  cent, 
from  101  to  120  weeks;  in  21  per  cent,  from  121  to  150 
weeks  ;  and  in  32  per  cent,  from  151  to  170  weeks.  The  total 
number  of  hours  is  thus  from  80  to  100  in  2  per  cent.,  from  140 
to  180  in  7  per  cent.,  from  201  to  240  in  8  per  cent.,  from  281  to 
400  in  27  per  cent.,  from  401  to  520  in  30  per  cent.,  from  521  to 
640  in  23  per  cent.,  and  720  for  a  single  school. 

The  percentages  for  the  different  recitation  periods  are 
almost  the  same  as  in  literature.  Forty-nine  per  cent,  give  40- 
minute  recitations  and  26  per  cent,  a  period  of  45  minutes. 

Twelve  texts,  including  grammars  and  beginners'  books, 
are  reported  in  Latin.  Collar  and  Daniel  has  marked  prece 
dence,  being  used  in  67.1  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and  Harkness 
ranks  next  with  12.3  per  cent. 

GERMAN 

German,  rapidly  growing  in  popularity  as  a  secondary  lan 
guage  study,  is  now  found  in  103,  or  34.6  per  cent.,  of  our 
schools.  In  almost  half  of  these,  41  per  cent.,  it  is  a  two  years' 
course,  given  in  the  last  two  years.  Twenty-four  per  cent,  give 
it  the  full  four  years  ;  8  per  cent,  continue  it  through  the  first 
three  years  ;  and  7  per  cent,  through  the  last  three.  As  a  one 

[95] 


20 

year's  course  it  is  taught  in  8  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  3  per 
cent,  giving  it  in  the  first  year,  3  per  cent,  in  the  third,  and  2 
per  cent,  in  the  fourth. 

In  one  school  there  are  but  two  recitations  a  week,  but  17 
per  cent,  have  four,  and  the  remaining  82  per  cent,  five,  each 
week. 

Seven  per  cent,  of  the  schools  offering  German  devote  from 
37  to  40  weeks  to  it ;  52  per  cent,  give  it  from  60  to  80  weeks ; 
20  per  cent,  give  it  100  to  150  weeks ;  and  20  per  cent.  151  to 
170  weeks.  This  gives  a  total  in  hours  ranging  from  240  to 
280  in  34  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  from  281  to  360  in  18  per 
cent.,  from  440  to  480  in  16  per  cent.,  from  520  to  600  in  8  per 
cent,  and  from  80  to  240  in  various  smaller  percentages. 

Eleven  texts  are  used  in  beginning  German,  but  the  Joynes 
Meissner  grammar  is  by  far  the  most  common,  being  in  52  per 
cent,  of  the  schools.  Thomas  follows  with  21.8  per  cent,  and 
Collar  stands  next,  with  15.6  per  cent.,  the  remaining  eight  be 
ing  found  in  small  percentages  only. 

FRENCH 

French  is  far  less  common  than  German  in  our  high 
schools,  being  taught  in  but  8.7  per  cent,  of  them,  26  by  num 
ber.  Fourteen  of  this  number  are  Chicago  schools.  In  60  per 
cent,  of  the  schools  giving  French  it  is  continued  throughout 
the  four  years  ;  8  per  cent,  give  it  the  last  three  years  and  12 
per  cent,  the  last  two,  while  one  school  offers  it  in  the  first  two 
years,  one  in  the  first  three,  one  in  the  third  year,  and  one  in 
the  fourth. 

In  60  per  cent,  of  the  schools  there  are  four  recitations  a 
week  in  French  and  in  the  remainder,  five.  Twenty-three  per 
cent,  give  it  from  70  to  80  weeks  ;  11  per  cent.,  from  100  to  120 
weeks  ;  58  per  cent.,  from  150  to  170  ;  while  7  per  cent,  give  it 
but  40  weeks.  The  totals  in  hours  range  from  140  to  160  in  11 
per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  from  200  to  280  in  18  per  cent.;  and 
from  400  to  480  in  69  per  cent. 

Six  texts  are  used  in  French,  Keetels  leading  with  66.6  per 

cent. 

[96] 


21 

GREEK 

Greek  is  found  more  frequently  than  French  in  Illinois 
high  schools,  being  in  the  curricula  of  34  of  them,  11.4  per 
cent.  In  61  per  cent,  of  these  the  last  three  years  are  given  to 
it,  and  in  32  per  cent,  it  is  given  but  two  years,  these  being  the 
first  and  second  years  in  6  per  cent.,  the  second  and  third  in  3 
per  cent.,  and  the  third  and  fourth  in  23  per  cent.  The  first 
three  years  are  given  to  Greek  in  3  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and 
in  another  3  per  cent,  it  is  given  in  the  fourth  year  only. 
There  are  four  recitations  each  week  in  47  per  cent,  of  the 
schools,  and  five  in  the  remainder.  From  80  to  120  weeks  are 
given  the  subject  in  90  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  the  total 
number  of  hours  ranging  from  200  to  280  in  17  per  cent.,  from 
281  to  360  in  66  per  cent.,  and  from  400  to  480  in  13  per  cent. 

Four  texts  are  reported.  White  is  used  in  53.4  per  cent,  of 
the  schools ;  Goodwin,  in  38.8  per  cent. ;  Pattengill,  in  4.8  per 
cent. ;  and  Kelsey  in  the  remaing  2.4  per  cent. 

SPANISH  AND  SWEDISH 

The  Moline  high  school  alone  offers  a  course  in  Spanish. 
It  is  given  in  the  second  and  third  years,  continuing  for  80 
weeks.  With  three  45-minute  recitations  a  week,  this  gives  a 
total  of  180  hours  devoted  to  the  subject. 

Swedish,  given  in  the  North  Park  high  school,  is  continued 
through  the  first  three  years,  with  five  45-minute  recitations 
for  each  of  the  120  weeks,  making  a  total  of  450  hours  devoted 
to  the  subject. 

The  text-books  used  in  these  languages  are  in  neither  case 
reported. 

HISTORY,  Civics,  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY 

The  offerings  in  history  include  in  every  case  more  than 
American  history.  More  than  four  fifths  of  the  schools  give 
general  history,  many  of  the  smaller  ones  giving  no  other  work 
in  European  history.  A  large  percentage  of  the  schools  give 
general  history  in  the  first  two  years,  and  civics  in  the  first. 

[97] 


22 


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[98] 


23 


PERCENTAGE  OF  THE  SEVERAL  TEXTS  USED  IN  THESE  BRANCHES 


Myers 

Barnes . . . 

Fisher 

Colby.... 


Montgomery 

Coman  &  Kendall 
Guest  & 

Underwood , 

Larned 

Greene 

Anderson. . , 


McMasters . . 
Montgomery 
McLaughlin 
Channing  .  . . 


Myers  and  Allen 

Allen 

Barnes. . 


71.1 

17.7 
2.8 
2.4 


65. 
17.4 

2-7 

2.7 

2. 


322 
22.5 
15-7 
13.5 

69.4 

5-2 

5.2 


GENERAL  HISTORY* 
Swinton 1.6 

Appleton 8 

Adams' European. .       .8 

ENGLISH  HISTORY 

Barnes 1.3 

Oman 1.3 

Gardner..  .7 


Gibson 

Emerton. . 
Morris.. . 


AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Fisher 9. 

Johnson 2.2 

Thomas 1.5 

Barnes 7 

GREEK  AND  ROMAN  HISTORY 

Fisher 3.9 

Botsford 3.9 

Smith  ..  .2.6 


Boltwood's  Topical 

Outlines 4 

Montgomery 4 

Quackenbos 4 


Myers 7 

Guerber 7 

Ransom 7 

Thalkeimer. 7 


Eggleston 7 

Mowry 7 

New  Era 7 


Harding 1.3 

McClear 1.3 

Myers' Ancient 6.5 


MEDIEVAL  AND  MODERN  HISTORY 

Myers . .   85.6        Fisher 14.2 

FRENCH  HISTORY 
Montgomery 66.6        Emerton 33.3 


Trowbridge 21.7 

Fiske 18.9 

Young 15.4 

Dole's  Amer.  Citizen..  8.2 

McCleary 5.1 

Hinsdale 3.5 

Macy 3.5 

Mowry  and  Barton. ...   3.5 


Laughlin 31.3 

Walker 31.3 

Thompson 1 1.4 


Civics 

Townsend  3.5 

Andrews— Tighes 2.3 

Morrill 2.3 

Peterman 1.9 

Thorpe 1.9 

Crawford i.i 

Williams i.i 

Willoughby i.i 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY 

Macvane 8.5 

Bullock 5.7 

Thurston 5.7 


Judson 7 

McCreary 7 

Wright 7 

Cocker 4 

Johnston 4 

Martin 4 

Rogers — Williams 4 


Davenport 2.8 

Nordhoff..  ..  2.8 


Concerning  interpretation,   see  p.  4. 


[991 


24 

GENERAL  HISTORY 

General  History  is  given  in  245  of  the  high  schools  of 
Illinois,  82.3  per  cent,  of  them.  Ten  per  cent,  of  these  give  it 
in  the  first  year  ;  35  per  cent,  in  the  second  ;  22  per  cent,  in  the 
third ;  and  6  per  cent,  in  the  fourth.  Nine  per  cent,  continue 
it  through  the  second  year  and  a  part  of  the  third,  and  3  per 
cent,  give  it  through  the  third  and  fourth  years.  There  are 
five  recitations  a  week  in  95  per  cent,  of  these  schools  ;  four,  in 
3  per  cent.  ;  and  three,  in  2  per  cent. 

The  time  given  to  this  subject  ranges  from  a  minimum  of 
16  to  19  weeks,  given  by  1  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  to  a  maxi 
mum  of  81  to  90  weeks  given  by  4  per  cent.  Of  these,  however, 
78  per  cent,  fall  between  34  and  40  weeks — a  full  year's  work. 
The  shortest  number  of  hours  devoted  to  History  is  60,  given 
by  1  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and  the  longest  time  is  300  hours ; 
while  73  per  cent,  give  from  95  to  140  hours  to  the  subject, 

Ten  text-books  are  used  in  general  history,  but  Myers,  with 
71.1  per  cent.,  is  far  more  generally  used  than  any  other,  and 
Barnes  comes  next  with  17.1  per  cent 

ENGLISH  AND  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

These  branches,  without  differentiation,  are  reported  in 
125,  or  42.4  per  cent,  of  the  schools.  Of  this  number,  16  per 
cent,  give  them  in  the  first  year  ;  9  per  cent,  in  the  second  ;  18 
per  cent.,  in  the  third ;  27  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth ;  and  17  per 
cent.,  in  the  third  and  fourth.  Eighty-four  per  cent,  have  five 
recitations  a  week. 

Sixteen  per  cent,  give  but  20  to  25  weeks  to  these  subjects, 
while  73  per  cent,  give  them  34  to  40  weeks,  or  a  full  year. 
This  makes  a  total  of  61  to  70  hours  in  13  per  cent.,  and  120  to 
160  hours  in  60  per  cent.  The  smaller  percentages  for  a 
greater  or  less  number  of  hours  are  fully  represented  in  the 

table. 

ENGLISH  HISTORY 

English  history  as  differentiated  from  American  is  reported 
from  14.7  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools,  44  by  number.  Sixteen 

fioo] 


25 

per  cent,  of  these  give  it  in  the  first  year ;  19  per  cent.,  in  the 
second ;  31  per  cent.,  in  the  third ;  and  33  per  cent.,  in  the 
fourth.  In  95  per  cent,  of  these  schools  there  are  five  recita 
tions  a  week  ;  and  in  the  remainder,  three.  In  91  per  cent, 
from  34  to  40  weeks — a  full  year — are  given  to  the  subject ;  and 
8  per  cent,  give  it  from  41  to  50  weeks.  The  total  time  in 
hours  is  from  71  to  80  in  39  per  cent.,  and  from  100  to  140  in  41 
per  cent. 

Sixteen  texts  are  used  in  English  history,  but  Montgomery 
takes  precedence,  being  used  in  65  per  cent,  of  the  schools, 
while  Coman  and  Kendall  ranks  second  with  17.4  per  cent. 

AMERICAN  HISTORY 

American  history  is  separately  reported  by  22.8  per  cent., 
or  in  68,  of  the  schools.  In  20  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  given  in 
the  first  year ;  in  9  per  cent.,  in  the  second  ;  in  26  per  cent.,  in 
the  third;  and  in  43  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth.  Ninety-six  per 
cent,  have  five  recitations  a  week.  In  10  per  cent,  only  10  to 
15  weeks  are  given  to  the  subject ;  but  81  per  cent,  offer  it  for  a 
full  year — from  34  to  40  weeks, — and  a  few  schools  give  it  still 
more  time.  The  total  number  of  hours  given  to  it  is  from  50 
to  60  in  34  per  cent,  of  the  schools ;  from  70  to  80  in  27  per 
cent.  ;  and  90  to  120  in  23  per  cent. 

Of  the  eleven  texts  used,  McMaster's  leads  with  32.2  per 
cent,  and  Montgomery  follows  closely  with  22.5  per  cent. 

GREEK  AND  ROMAN  HISTORY 

A  single  school  reports  a  distinct  course  in  ancient  history 
It  is  given  in  the  first  year,  with   recitations  four  times  a  week 
the  total  number  of  hours  amounting  to  100. 

Greek  and  Roman  history  are  offered  in  25  per  cent,  of  the 
schools.  In  13  per  cent,  of  these  the  subject  is  given  in  the 
first  year ;  in  36  per  cent.,  in  the  second  ;  in  9  per  cent.,  the 
third  year ;  and  in  97  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth  year.  Seventy- 
two  per  cent,  of  the  schools  have  five  recitations  a  week,  and 
21  per  cent,  but  four.  Ten  per  cent  continue  the  study  from 

[101] 


26 

20  to  25  weeks,  while  83  per  cent,  give  it  from  26  to  40  weeks 
—or  a  full  year  in  most  cases.  For  fourteen  per  cent,  of  the 
schools  the  total  number  of  hours  given  the  subject  is  90  to 
100;  for  46  per  cent.,  101  to  120;  and  for  17  per  cent,,  121  to 
140. 

Nine  different  texts  are  used  in  Greek  and  Roman  history, 
but  Myers  and  Allen  is  much  the  commonest,  being  found  in 
69.4  per  cent,  of  the  schools. 

OTHER  COURSES  IN  HISTORY 

Medieval  and  Modern  history  are  offered  in  2.3  per  cent,  of 
the  high  schools,  7  of  them,  in  the  second  year  in  half  of  them, 
and  in  the  third  in  the  other  half.  In  57  per  cent,  of  these 
schools  recitations  are  held  five  times  a  week  ;  in  14  per  cent., 
four  times  ;  and  in  28  per  cent.,  three  times.  In  a  single  school 
a  half  year  is  devoted  to  the  subject,  the  remaining  schools 
giving  it  a  full  year  in  each  case.  The  total  number  of  hours 
devoted  to  this  study  is  50  for  one  school,  80  for  one,  90  for  one, 
and  from  100  to  140  for  the  remainder.  Myers's  text  is  used  in 
all  of  the  schools  but  one,  which  uses  Fisher. 

French  history  is  given  in  two  schools,  in  both  in  the  sec 
ond  year.  One  has  four  recitations  a  week  ;  the  other,  five- 
One  devotes  18  weeks,  or  50  hours,  to  the  subject  ;  the  other 
36  weeks,  or  90  hours,  recitation  periods  being  40  minutes  in 
both  cases.  One  school  uses  Montgomery's  text ;  the  other 
Emerton.  Another  school  reports  Montgomery's  French  his 
tory  as  constituting  a  part  of  its  course  in  medieval  and  mod 
ern  history. 

Civics 

Eighty-one  per  cent,  of  the  schools  of  Illinois,  259,  offer 
civics.  In  32  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  given  in  the  first  year  ;  in 
18  per  cent.,  in  the  second  ;  in  14  per  cent,  in  the  third  ;  and 
in  32  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth.  Small  percentages  of  the  schools 
give  it  in  parts  of  two  years,  as  shown  fully  in  the  table.  In 
89  per  cent,  of  the  schools  recitations  are  held  five  times  a 
week. 

[102] 


27 

Sixteen  per  cent,  of  the  schools  give  but  10  to  15  weeks  to 
civics,  while  a  very  few  give  even  less  time.  Forty-eight  per 
cent,  give  it  from  16  to  19  weeks ;  20  per  cent.,  from  20  to  25  ; 
and  14  per  cent,  give  a  full  year  to  the  subject.  The  total  time 
devoted  to  civics  varies  from  12  hours  to  160,  but  for  64  per 
cent,  it  lies  between  40  and  70  hours. 

Twenty-three  texts  are  used  in  teaching  civics.  Trow- 
bridge's  "  Illinois  and  the  Nation  "  leads,  with  21.7  per  cent., 
while  Fiske  is  a  close  second,  with  18.9  per  cent.,  and  Young 
stands  next  with  15.4  per  cent. 

ECONOMICS 

The  term  economics,  as  here  used,  includes  political  econ 
omy.  Work  is  offered  in  this  subject  by  38  schools,  which  is 
12.7  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools  of  Illinois.  In  3  per  cent,  of 
these  it  is  given  in  the  first  year  ;  in  9  per  cent.,  in  the  second ; 
in  12  per  cent.,  in  the  third  ;  and  in  75  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth. 
There  are  five  recitations  a  week  in  97  per  cent,  of  the  schools, 
the  remainder  having  two.  Thirty-nine  per  cent,  give  half  a 
year  to  political  economy  ;  35  per  cent,  give  a  little  more  than 
half  a  year— from  20  to  25  weeks;  while  16  per  cent,  give  av 
full  year  to  the  subject.  This  makes  the  total  in  hours  from 
50  to  70  in  65  per  cent.,  and  from  71  to  80  in  18  per  cent. 

Eight  different  texts  are  used,  the  leading  ones  being 
Laughlin's  and  Walker's,  each  used  in  31.3  per  cent,  of  the 
schools,  and  Thompson  following  with  11.4  per  cent. 

PHYSICAL  AND  BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES 

Most  of  the  secondary  schools  of  Illinois  offer  both  physi 
cal  and  biological  science  in  their  curricula.  All  but  2.2  per 
cent,  teach  physics,  and  all  but  .6  per  cent,  report  biological 
science.  A  large  number  offer  both  botany  and  zoology,  and 
the  percentages  in  Table  IV.  show  the  prominence  given  to 
physiology  and  physiography.  Laboratory  courses  in  physiog 
raphy  are  offered  in  a  small  number  of  schools,  East  Aurora 
and  Joliet  township  reporting  specific  data  concerning  them, 

[103] 


28 

while  in  the  latter  school  a  laboratory  course  in  geology  is  also 
provided  for.  Descriptive  astronomy  is  taught  in  more  than 
26  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and  text-book  psychology  is  studied 
in  a  small  percentage. 

Laboratory  work  while  given  in  most  of  the  sciences  in 
all  of  the  larger  schools,  is  found  to  be  deplorably  wanting  in 
many  of  the  smaller  ones.  Nearly  40  per  cent,  of  the  schools 
make  no  report  of  laboratory  work  either  in  botany  or  zoology, 
and  27  per  cent,  make  no  mention  of  any  .in  connection  with 
physics.  In  small  percentages  demonstration  work  is  reported 
for  each  of  the  sciences,  and  for  about  one-fifth  there  is  men 
tion  of  laboratory  work,  but  without  specification  of  its  amount 
or  the  time  given  to  it.  Over  20  per  cent,  of  the  schools  teach 
ing  physiology  give  laboratory  work,  but  in  most  cases  it  is  va 
riable  and  indefinite. 

By  far  the  larger  percentage  of  schools  give  botany  and 
zoology  in  the  first  and  second  years,  while  physics  and  chem 
istry  are  confined  even  more  definitely  to  the  third  and  fourth 
years.  In  25  per  cent,  of  the  196  schools  teaching  both  physics 
and  chemistry,  chemistry  precedes  physics  ;  in  17  per  cent 
they  are  given  in  the  same  year  ;  and  in  one  school  they  alter 
nate,  each  being  given  but  once  in  two  years.  In  all  other 
cases  physics  precedes. 

In  a  very  large  percentage  of  the  shools  physics  and  chem 
istry  are  each  given  a  full  year.  On  the  other  hand,  nearly  80 
per  cent,  of  the  schools  offering  botany  and  zoology  give  them 
but  a  half  year  each.  As  nearly  40  per  cent,  of  the  schools 
offer  no  laboratory  work  in  the  biological  sciences,  it  is  fair  to 
assume  that  the  courses  are  largely  devoted  to  getting  infor 
mation  about  plants  and  animals  from  text-books. 

PHYSICS 

Physics  is  almost  universally  taught  in  the  high  schools  of 
Illinois,  data  concerning  the  subject  having  been  received  from 
97.4  per  cent.,  or  290,  of  them.  In  49  per  cent,  of  these  it  is 
placed  in  the  third  year  ;  in  37  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth  ;  and  in 

[104] 


29 


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[105] 


30 


PERCENTAGES  OF  THE  VARIOUS  TEXTS  USED  IN  THE  SCIENCES 

PHYSICS1 


Avery 40.2 

Carhart— Chute 18.3 

G.age 10.9 

Wentworth— Hill.. .     9.8 

Steele 6.3 

Cooley 4. 


Appleton  ............   2.5 

Baker  ...............    1.8 

Hall—  Bergen  .......    i.i 

Shaw  .................  7 

Sharpless  —  Phillips...      .7 

Thwing  ..............  7 


PHYSICS  LABORATORY  MANUALS 
Chute  .......................  60  .  7     Adams  .........  8.6 

Nichols,  Smith,  and  Thurston.  13.         Allen  ..........  8.6 


Wells 7 

Crew 3 

Everett 3 

Hoadley 3 

Meade 3 


Andrews 4.3 

Stone — Shamin..   4.3 


Remsen 32.2 

Williams 31.6 

Shepherd 18.7 

Storer  and  Lindlay .     3.8 
Newell 3.2 

Bergen 51.6 

Gray 31.7 

Coulter 6. 

Atkinson 1.9 

Woods..  1.9 


Colton 16.8 

Packard 16.2 

Needham 12.7 

Holder 11.8 

Steele 10.6 

Jordan 7.6 


Boyer 


50. 


Blaisdell 20. 

Martin 17.6 

Overton 14.4 

Hutchinson 12.8 

Colton 6.4 

Tracy 6.4 


CHEMISTI^ 

Steele 2.5 

Avery 1.9 

Cooley 1.2 

Freer 1.2 

Shaw 1.2 

BOTANY 

Spalding 1.6 

Bailey 1.2 

Hall     1.2 

Clark 9 

Barnes 3 

ZOOLOGY 

Burnett 6.5 

Orton 6.2 

Davenport 4.4 

Tenney 2. 

Kingsley 1.4 

Boyer 8 

BIOLOGY 

Needham 25. 

PHYSIOLOGY 

Steele 4.8 

Stowell : . . .   3.6 

Walker 3.2 

Brands 2.4 

Huxley  2. 

Macy  and  Harris  ...    1.6 


Graham 6 

Noyes 6 

Richardson  ...  .6 


Bessey. . . 
McBride 

Williams 


Nicholson 

Montmsbon  and  Beau- 
regard  

Cooper 

Norton.  . 


Nicholson 25. 


Cutter 

Dunglison 
Baldwin.  . , 
Youmans . , 
Brown 
Hitchcock. 


1.2 

1.2 


I  Concerning  interpretation,  see  p.  4. 

[106] 


31 


Young 
Todd  . 

Steele. 


Tarr 34.3 

Davis 31.1 

Houston  10.5 

Eclectic 5.9 

Hinman 3.2 

Redway 4 


LeConte 67.2 

Dana 10.8 

Tarr 6.5 


Roach 
Buell. 


ASTRONOMY 

63.6        Howe 4.8 

16.8         Bowen 1.2 

'8.4        Comstock 1.2 

PHYSIOGRAPHY 

Guyot 2.7 

Warren 2.7 

Monteith 2.2 

Appleton 1.3 

Maury 1.3 

Cornell 9 

GEOLOGY 

Heilprin 4.1 

Andrews 2.1 

Brigham 2.1 

PSYCHOLOGY 

33.3        Halleck 16.6 

16.6        Ladd  .  .   i6'6 


Gillet  and  Rolfe 1.2 

Holder  and  Newcomb  1.2 
Ray 1.2 


Butler 

Frye 

Geike 

Hutchinson 
Mills.. 


4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

Rand  McNally 4 


Davis 2.1 

Shaler 2.1 

Steele. .  .2.1 


Taylor 16.6 


small  percentages,  in  the  first  and  second.  Three  per  cent,  of 
the  schools  have  four  recitations  a  week  ;  27  per  cent,  have 
five  ;  and  23  per  cent,  report  five  recitations  a  week,  including 
laboratory  work.  The  remaining  45  per  cent,  report  laboratory 
work  separately,  giving  it  from  one  to  six  periods  a  week,  with 
one  to  five  recitations  a  week  in  the  text.  The  most  common 
arrangement  is  to  divide  the  weekly  five  days'  work  in  physics 
into  two  double  periods  for  the  laboratory,  and  into  three  per 
iods  for  text-book  recitations,  or  vice  versa.  But  almost  all  pos 
sible  combinations  of  class-room  and  laboratory  work  exist, 
and  these  are  summarized  in  Table  IV.,  the  numbers  above  the 
line  in  each  case  indicating  recitations,  and  the  number  below 
indicating  laboratory  periods.  Where  laboratory  periods  were 
reported  as  differing  in  length  from  recitation  periods  they  are 
given  separately  in  the  table.  For  the  most  part  they  are 
double  the  recitation  period  if  they  differ  at  all. 

In  3  per  cent,  of  the  schools  only  half  a  year,  16  to  19 
weeks,  is  devoted  to  physics  ;  but  88  per  cent,  give  it  34  to  40 
weeks — a  full  year  ;  and  a  few  give  it  more  than  a  year,  one 

[107] 


32 

school,  84  weeks.  The  total  time  is,  for  27  per  cent.,  from  80 
to  120  hours,  and  for  40  per  cent.,  from  121  to  160  hours.  Table 
IV.  gives  full  data  for  smaller  percentages. 

Seventeen  different  texts  are  used  in  physics,  and  six  dif 
ferent  laboratory  manuals  are  reported.  Avery  is  the  most 
common  text,  used  in  40.2  per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  Carhart 
and  Chute  follow  with  18.3  per  cent.  ;  and  Gage,  with  10.9  per 
cent.,  ranks  third.  Chute's  manual  leads,  and  Nichols,  Smith 
and  Thurston's  stands  second. 

CHEMISTRY 

Just  one-half  of  the  Illinois  schools,  149,  offer  chem 
istry.  One-third  of  these  give  it  in  the  third  year  ;  58  per 
cent.,  in  the  fourth  ;  3  per  cent.,  in  the  second  ;  and  4  per  cent, 
through  the  third  year  and  a  part  of  the  fourth.  Fifteen  per 
cent,  make  no  mention  of  laboratory  work  ;  and  in  19  per 
cent,  the  five  recitations  a  week  reported,  include  it.  As  in 
physics,  two  per  cent,  report  five  periods  a  week,  stating  that  a 
part  of  the  time  is  given  to  demonstration  work.  Most  of  the 
58  per  cent,  making  specific  reports  on  laboratory  work  assign 
three  periods  a  week  to  it,  with  two  for  recitations,  or  vice  versa. 
The  length  of  the  periods  is  about  the  same  as  for  physics,  ex 
cept  that  a  somewhat  larger  percentage  give  double  laboratory 
periods. 

Twenty-seven  per  cent,  of  the  schools  teaching  chemistry 
give  less  than  a  year  to  it.  Of  these,  15  per  cent,  give  it  from 
16  to  19  weeks — a  half  year  ;  3  per  cent.,  9  to  15  weeks  ;  and 
9  per  cent.,  from  20  to  25  weeks.  Sixty-eight  per  cent,  give 
a  full  year  to  the  subject,  and  one  school  gives  it  two  full  years. 
The  total  number  ot  hours  thus  varies  from  40  to  400,  but  in 
18  per  cent,  the  range  is  from  80  to  120,  and  in  38  per  cent., 
from  121  to  160. 

Thirteen  texts  are  used  in  chemistry.  Remsen  leads,  with 
32.2  per  cent.  ;  Williams  is  a  close  second,  with  31.6  per  cent.; 
and  Shepard  third,  with  18.7  per  cent. 

[108] 


33 

BOTANY 

Botany  is  included  in  the  curricula  of  94.4  per  cent,  of  our 
high  schools,  281  of  them  by  number.  In  22  per  cent,  of  these 
it  is  offered  in  the  first  year  ;  in  52  per  cent.,  in  the  second  ;  in 
16  per  cent.,  in  the  third  ;  and  in  4  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth.  In 
a  few  cases  it  is  given  in  parts  of  two  years,  as  may  be  seen  in 
full  by  reference  to  the  table.  Thirty-eight  per  cent,  report 
without  reference  to  laboratory  work,  and  demonstration  work 
is  reported  from  1  per  cent.  Separate  laboratory  periods  are 
reported  from  42  per  cent.,  20  per  cent,  of  these  having  two 
periods  a  week,  and  9  per  cent,  having  three.  These  periods 
are,  for  the  most  part,  of  the  same  length  as  recitation  periods, 
but  in  a  few  schools  they  are  twice  as  long. 

Seventy-three  per  cent,  of  the  schools  give  from  16  to  19 
weeks,  a  half  year,  to  botany,  and  12  per  cent,  give  it  a  full 
year.  From  9  to  15  weeks  are  given  by  a  small  percentage, 
making  a  minimum  of  26  in  the  total  number  of  hours  given 
the  subject ;  27  per  cent.,  give  it  from  50  to  60  hours,  and  41 
per  cent,  give  it  from  80  to  120  hours. 

Thirteen  texts  are  used  in  botany,  Bergen  in  50.6  per  cent, 
of  the  schools,  and  Gray  in  31.7  per  cent. 

ZOOLOGY 

Zoology  is  not  so  frequently  found  in  the  high  schools  as  is 
botany,  being  taught  in  but  263,  or  88.3  per  cent,  of  them.  In 
15  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  given  in  the  first  year ;  in  54  per  cent., 
in  the  second ;  in  16  per  cent,  in  the  third,  and  in  5  per  cent,  in 
the  fourth.  The  number  and  length  of  recitations  in  zoology, 
as  also  the  total  time  given  it,  are  approximately  the  same  as 
for  botany.  In  many  schools  the  subjects  receive  an  equal  time 
allotment,  a  half  year  being  given  to  botany  in  73  per  cent,  of 
them,  and  to  zoology  in  74  per  cent. 

Sixteen  texts  are  used  in  zoology.  Colton  is  the  most  pop 
ular,  being  used  in  16.8  per  cent.;  but  Packard  closely  follows 
with  16.2  per  cent.  Needham  is  used  in  12. 7  per  cent,  of  them; 
Holder,  in  11.8  ;  and  Steele  in  10  per  cent. 

[109] 


34 

BIOLOGY 

Biology,  as  such,  is  taught  in  but  2.6  per  cent.,  or  8,  of  the 
schools.  Of  these,  43  per  cent,  give  it  in  the  first  year,  and 
the  remainder  in  the  second.  One  school  reporting  four  reci 
tations  a  week  makes  no  reference  to  laboratory  work,  and 
the  same  is  true  of  three  schools  in  which  there  are  five  recita 
tions  a  week.  In  the  remaining  number,  from  one  to  five  peri 
ods  a  week  are  devoted  to  laboratory  work,  these  periods  being 
of  the  same  length  of  recitations— 40  minutes  in  50  per  cent,  of 
the  schools  and  45  minutes  in  25  per  cent.  Boyer's  Biology  is 
used  in  50  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and  Needham  and  Nichols 
each  in  25  per  cent. 

PHYSIOLOGY 

Physiology  is  taught  in  255  of  the  high  schools,  which  is 
85.6  per  cent,  of  them.  In  80  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  given  in 
the  first  year  and  in  11  per  cent,  in  the  second,  while  3  per  cent, 
give  it  in  the  third,  and  3  per  cent,  in  the  fourth.  Seventeen 
per  cent,  give  four  recitations  a  week  and  77  per  cent,  give  five, 
while  13  per  cent,  more  give  five  periods,  specifying  that  this 
includes  laboratory  work.  While  15  per  cent,  report  the  latter 
as  done  separately,  so  few  schools  specify  the  amount  that  the 
slight  information  in  hand  on  this  point  has  not  been  tabulated. 
Seventeen  per  cent,  of  the  schools  give  physiology  from  9  to  15 
weeks  ;  53  per  cent,  give  it  from  16  to  19  weeks  or  one  half  year; 
16  per  cent,  give  it  20  to  33  weeks ;  11  per  cent,  33  to  40  weeks; 
and  1  per  cent.,  50  weeks.  The  total  number  of  hours  thus 
ranges  from  30  to  180,  but  in  60  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  lies 
between  40  and  70.  Recitations  vary  from  15  minutes  to  90, 
46  per  cent,  giving  a  40-minute  period  and  22  per  cent,  one  of 
45  minutes. 

Eighteen  texts  are  used  in  physiology,  but  a  large  percent 
age  of  the  schools  use  either  Blaisdell,  (20  per  cent.),  Martin, 
(17.6  per  cent.),  Overton  (14.4  per  cent.),  or  Hutchinson  (12.8 
per  cent.). 

[1 10] 


35 

ASTRONOMY 

Astronomy  is  taught  by  79,  26.5  per  cent.,  of  the  Illinois 
high  schools.  In  82  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  given  in  the  fourth 
year,  and  in  the  remainder  in  the  third.  Eighty-one  per  cent, 
have  five  recitations  a  week,  the  other  19  per  cent,  have  four. 
Thirteen  per  cent,  of  the  courses  cover  from  16  to  19  weeks  ; 
69  per  cent.,  20  to  to  25  weeks  ;  and  6  per  cent.,  26  to  37  weeks 
—a  full  year.  The  total  time  in  hours  is,  for  55  per  cent.,  40  to 
60 ;  for  31  per  cent,  70  to  100  ;  for  3  per  cent.,  101  to  120  ;  and 
for  1  per  cent.,  the  maximum  period  of  280  hours. 

Nine  texts  are  used  in  Astronomy,  Young  being  in  the 
lead,  with  63.6  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and  Todd  following 
with  16.8  per  cent. 

PHYSIOGRAPHY 

Physiography,  embracing  physical  geography  and,  in  a  few 
cases,  the  physical  aspects  of  geography  as  given  in  topo 
graphical  geographies,  is  offered  in  76.6  per  cent,  of  the  second 
ary  schools,  228  by  number.  It  is  given  in  the  first  year  in  61 
per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  in  the  second  in  17  per  cent.  ;  in  the 
third  in  12  per  cent.  ;  and  in  the  fourth  in  8  per  cent.  Five 
recitations  a  week  is  the  rule,  89  per  cent,  of  the  schools  hav 
ing  this  number.  There  are  four  a  week  in  8  per  cent,  while  a 
small  number  have  two  or  three  each  week.  The  subject  is 
given  from  9  to  15  weeks  in  4  per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  from  16 
to  19,  in  18  per  cent.;  from  20  to  25,  in  49  per  cent.  ;  from  26  to 
40,  in  26  per  cent.  ;  and  from  41  to  50,  in  4  per  cent.  The  total 
number  of  hours  spent  in  astronomy  varies  from  41  to  60  in  41 
per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  from  61  to  80  in  28  per  cent.  ;  and 
from  81  to  120  in  20  per  cent. 

Of  the  eighteen  texts  used  in  physiography,  Tarr  is  most 
generally  used,  occurring  in  34.3  per  cent,  Davis  following 
with  31.1  per  cent. 

GEOLOGY 

Geology  is  taught  in  16.4  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  49  of 
them.  In  6  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  given  in  the  first  year  ;  in 

[in] 


36 

17  per  cent.,  in  the  second  ;  in  19  per  cent.,  in  the  third  ;  and 
in  56  per  cent.,  in  the  fourth.  Sixty-five  per  cent,  of  these 
schools  have  five  recitations  a  week,  28  per  cent,  have  four,  4 
per  cent,  have  three,  and  2  per  cent,  have  two.  From  9  to  16 
weeks  are  devoted  to  geology  in  20  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and 
from  20  to  25  in  75  per  cent.,  while  4  per  cent,  give  it  37  to  40 
weeks.  The  total  number  of  hours  given  ranges  from  35  to  60 
in  74  per  cent.,  and  from  61  to  80  in  the  remainder  of  the 
schools. 

Le  Conte  is  the  favorite  among  the  nine  texts  used,  being 
reported  from  67.2  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  Dana  following 
with  10.8  per  cent, 

PSYCHOLOGY 

All  of  the  2.6  per  cent.,  or  8,  of  the  schools  offering  psy 
chology  place  it  in  the  fourth  year  and  give  it  five  periods  a 
week.  One  school  gives  it  but  10  weeks,  one  gives  it  33  weeks, 
and  the  remaining  number  give  it  from  20  to  25  weeks.  The 
total  number  of  hours  devoted  to  it  varies  from  40  to  50  in  16 
per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  from  61  to  80  in  66  per  cent.  ;  and 
from  81  to  100  in  16  per  cent. 

Five  texts  are  used,  Roach  being  reported  in  33.3  per  cent, 
of  the  schools,  and  each  of  the  other  four  in  16.6  per  cent,  of 
them. 

MISCELLANEOUS  SUBJECTS 

A  number  of  subjects  following  are  in  the  schools  as  a  re 
sponse  to  demands  for  utilitarian  courses.  Including  bookkeep 
ing,  what  may  be  termed  commercial  subjects  are  offered  in 
over  30  per  cent,  of  the  schools.  The  percentages  for  most  of 
them  are  very  small.  While  manual  training,  stenography  and 
typewriting,  mechanical  drawing,  and  pedagogy  are  here  classed 
as  utilitarian  subjects, — and  it  is  believed  that  this  view  of 
them  is  responsible  for  their  introduction  into  most  of  the 
schools, — the  value  of  each  as  an  educational  discipline  is  by 
no  means  to  be  disregarded. 

[112] 


37 


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PERCENTAGES  OF  THE  VARIOUS  TEXTS  USED  IN  THESE  BRANCHES 

COMMERCIAL  GEOGRAPHY1 
Tilden 66.6        Adams 33.3 

COMMERCIAL  LAW  Music 

Lyons 40.  Ginn's  Chart 28.4 

Clark.  .  20.  Normal  Music  Course 28.4 

Hamilton 20.  Golden  Glees 14.2 

Hill..  20.  Natural  Method 14.2 

Reader 14.2 

CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY 

Johnson ,00.  MYTHOLOGY 

Galey 50 . 

DRAWING  Dwight 50. 

Pran£ 49-9  PEDAGOGY 

Thompson 23.  Roark SQ 

American  System 3.8  white                                                    co 

Cross 3.8 

Flanagan                               3.8  STENOGRAPHY  AND  TYPE  WRITING 

Heath 3.8      Pitman— Howard 40. 

Natural  Series 3.8      Pitman— Barnes 20. 

Normal  Drawing  Course 3.8       Dement 20. 

Tracy 3.8       Perrin 20 . 

Free-hand  drawing  finds  growing  acceptance  in  our  high 
schools.  Owing  both  to  its  value  as  a  mental  training  and  to 
its  utility  as  an  aid  to  natural  science  study,  drawing  has  es 
tablished  a  valid  claim  as  an  essential  feature  of  the  secondary 
curriculum. 

A  small  number  of  schools  report  a  review  of  the  common 
branches  during  some  part  of  the  last  year  of  the  high  school 
course.  For  the  most  part  this  is  in  response  to  the  demand  of 
pupils  who  wish  to  teach  in  the  elementary  schools  after  grad 
uation  and  desire  a  special  preparation  for  the  teachers'  exam 
ination.  In  consideration  of  the  present  arrangement  of  the 
subject  matter  in  the  curricula  of  many  of  our  secondary  schools, 
a  review  of  the  high  school  branches  in  the  fourth  year  is  no 
doubt  in  many  cases  a  wise  provision.  The  pupil  who  has  had 
no  algebra  since  his  second  year  is  ill  prepared  for  advanced 
algebra  without  a  review  of  the  elements  of  the  subject. 


i  Concerning  interpretation,  see  p.  4. 

[114] 


39 

COMMERCIAL  GEOGRAPHY  AND  COMMERCIAL  LAW 
Commercial  Geography  is  taught  in  5,  or  1.6  per  cent,  of 
our  high  schools,  and  is  given  either  in  the  first,  second  or  third 
year.  Courses  vary  from  15  weeks  to  40,  most  of  them  rang 
ing  from  20  to  25.  The  two  texts  used  are  Tilden,  reported  in 
66.6  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and  Adams,  used  in  the  remain 
der. 

Commercial  law  is  offered  in  1 .3  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  4 
by  number,  and  is  given  in  the  third  year  in  75  per  cent,  of 
them  and  in  the  fourth  year  by  the  remaining  25  per  cent.  A 
half  year  is  given  to  it  in  25  per  cent,  of  the  schools  and  a  full 
year  by  another  25  per  cent.,  while  50  per  cent,  give  it  from  20 
to  25  weeks,  or  about  two  thirds  of  a  year.  Four  texts  are  used, 
Lyons  leading  with  40  per  cent. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY 

This  branch  is  given  in  a  single  school  for  25  weeks  of  the 
fourth  year,  recitations  of  30  minutes  being  held  five  times 
each  week.  The  text  used  is  Johnson's. 

DRAWING 

Free-hand  drawing  is  given  by  80  of  the  Illinois  high 
schools,  which  is  26.8  per  cent,  of  them.  In  50  per  cent,  of 
these  it  is  continued  through  the  four  years  ;  in  14  per  cent,  it 
is  given  for  three  years  ;  in  15  per  cent.,  for  two  ;  and  in  20 
per  cent.,  for  a  single  year.  In  17  per  cent,  there  is  but  one 
recitation  a  week,  while  49  per  cent,  have  two  recitations  each 
week,  and  smaller  percentages,  respectively,  three,  four,  and 
five.  The  time  devoted  to  it  varies  from  15  to  170  weeks,  25 
per  cent,  giving  it  from  37  to  40  weeks,  and  36  per  cent,  from 
140  to  160.  Recitations  vary  in  length  from  15  to  90  minutes, 
being,  however,  for  the  larger  percentages  either  40  or  45 
minutes. 

Nine  texts  or  systems  are  used  in  drawing,  but  73  per  cent, 
of  the  schools  report  either  Prang  or  Thompson,  Prang  leading 
with  49.9  per  cent. 

[115] 


40 

Mechanical  drawing  is  given  in  three  schools  only,  one 
teaching  it  in  the  third  year,  one  in  the  first  and  second  years, 
and  the  other  in  the  first  three  years.  The  three  schools  have 
respectively  one,  four,  and  five  recitations  a  week,  and  give  the 
subject,  respectively,  25,  26,  and  120  weeks.  No  text  is  re 
ported. 

ELOCUTION  AND  FORMAL  SPELLING 

Elocution  is  taught  in  but  1.3  percent.,  or  4,  of  the  schools, 
in  the  first  year  in  50  per  cent,  of  them,  and  for  the  full  four 
years  in  the  other  half.  In  33.8  per  cent,  there  is  but  one  reci 
tation  a  week,  while  66.6  per  cent,  have  two  recitations  a  week. 
The  total  number  of  hours  given  to  the  subject  is  70  for  33  per 
cent.;  80  for  33  per  cent.,  and  240  for  33  per  cent. 

Formal  spelling  is  reported  by  5,  which  is  1.6  per  cent,  of 
the  high  schools,  four  years  being  given  to  it  in  50  per  cent,  of 
them,  the  first  three  years  in  25  per  cent.,  and  the  first  year  in 
25  per  cent.  There  are  uniformly  five  recitations  a  week,  the 
periods  ranging  from  10  to  40  minutes.  From  16  to  25  weeks 
are  given  in  50  per  cent,  of  the  schools ;  frem  40  to  50  in  25  per 
cent.,  and  from  120  to  140  in  25  per  cent. 

HISTORY  OF  COMMERCE  AND  MANUAL  TRAINING 

The  history  of  commerce  is  taught  in  but  three  schools, 
one  giving  it  in  the  second  year  and  two  in  the  third.  Of  the 
two  schools  reporting  additional  data,  one  devotes  three  recita 
tions  a  week  to  the  subject  and  the  other,  five.  One  reports  a 
25  weeks  course,  the  other,  one  of  40  weeks. 

Manual  training  has  found  its  way  into  9,  or  3  per  cent.,  of 
the  high  schools  of  Illinois,  57  per  cent,  giving  it  in  the  first 
year,  14  per  cent,  in  the  first  and  second  years,  14  per  cent,  in 
the  third  and  fourth  years,  and  another  14  per  cent,  giving  it 
for  the  full  four  years.  In  11  per  cent,  of  the  schools  there  is 
but  one  recitation  a  week  ;  in  33  per  cent,  there  are  two  reci 
tations  a  week  ;  in  44  per  cent.,  five ;  and  in  11  per  cent.,  six. 
Recitation  periods  are  in  most  cases  40  or  45  minutes,  but  33 

[116] 


41 

per  cent,  of  the  schools  have  double  periods— 80  minutes  in  11 
per  cent,  of  these  and  90  minutes  for  the  other  22  per  cent. 
The  total  number  of  hours  given  to  manual  training  ranges 
from  50  to  60  in  25  per  cent.;  from  90  to  120  in  36  per  cent.; 
from  180  to  200  in  12  per  cent.,  and  from  240  to  320  in  24  per 
cent. 

Music  AND  MYTHOLOGY 

Music  is  taught  in  3.3  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools,  in  10 
of  them,  80  per  cent,  of  these  giving  it  throughout  the  four 
years  ;  10  per  cent,  in  the  first  three  years  ;  and  10  per  cent,  in 
the  fourth  year.  The  number  of  recitations  a  week  is  one, 
three,  and  five,  for  25  per  cent,  each,  and  two  and  four  each  for 
12  per  cent.  They  vary  in  length  from  15  to  50  minutes,  but 
50  per  cent,  of  the  schools  have  a  30-minute  recitation  period 
for  music.  The  total  time  given  to  the  subject  is  40  hours  in 
14  per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  80  hours  in  14  per  cent.  ;  from  120 
to  140,  in  42  per  cent.  ;  and  from  140  to  160,  in  28  per  cent. 
Ginn's  Chart  and  the  Normal  Music  Course  are  each  used  in 
28.4  per  cent,  of  the  schools,  and  three  other  texts  or  methods 
are  used  by  smaller  percentages. 

Mythology  is  taught  in  a  single  school,  38  weeks  of  the 
third  year  being  given  to  it,  with  two  45-minute  recitation 
periods  each  week.  Galey  and  Dwight  are  the  text  books  used. 

PEDAGOGY  AND  PHYSICAL   CULTURE 

Pedagogy  has  a  place  in  three  schools,  in  each  case  in  the 
fourth  year.  Two  schools  have  five  recitations  a  week  and  the 
other  but  two.  One  school  gives  it  a  half  year  ;  one,  24  weeks  ; 
and  the  other,  a  full  year.  Roark's  text  is  used  in  one  school, 
White's  in  another,  and  the  third  reports  no  text. 

Physical  Culture  is  taught  in  5  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools 
of  Illinois,  which  is  5  of  them,  and  is  uniformly  given  for  the 
full  four  years,  a  50-minute  period  being  allotted  to  recitations 
or  exercises — once  a  week  in  94  per  cent.,  and  twice  a  week  in 
the  remainder. 

[117] 


42 

STENOGRAPHY   AND   TYPEWRITING 

In  3.6  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools,  11  by  number,  stenog 
raphy  and  typewriting  have  been  introduced,  27  per  cent,  of 
these  giving  it  in  the  second  year,  18  per  cent,  in  the  second 
and  third  years,  9  per  cent,  in  the  last  three  years,  and  45  per 
cent,  during  the  last  two.  In  72  per  cent,  of  the  schools  there 
are  five  recitations  a  week  ;  and  two,  three,  and  four  are  each 
given  by  9  per  cent.  The  total  time  given  to  the  work  is  from 
40  to  60  hours  in  28  per  cent,  of  the  schools  ;  from  61  to  70,  in 
42  per  cent,  ;  from  81  to  90,  in  14  per  cent.  ;  and  from  120  to 
140  in  another  14  per  cent. 

The  Pitman-Howard  system  is  the  most  popular,  being 
used  in  40  per  cent,  of  the  schools. 

REVIEWS 

Reviews  in  the  common  branches  are  reported  by  5,  or  1.6 
per  cent,  of  the  high  schools,  and  are  given  in  the  last  year  of 
the  course.  In  most  cases  they  are  confined  to  a  half  year,  but 
two  schools  report  a  full  year  spent  in  this  work. 

NUMBER  OF  TEACHERS  IN  EACH  SCHOOL 
PERCENTAGES  OF  SCHOOLS  EMPLOYING  THE  VAKIOUS  NUMBERS  OF  TEACHERS 

i 13-8   7 i-3  15 13  22 3 

2 21.8  8 i.  16 3  24 3 

3 3Q-1    9 i-  J7 3  25 3 

4 12. i  10 3.4  19 6  S2 3 

5 5-9  12 i.  20 3  40 3 

6 2.7  13 6  21 6  51 3 

In  13.8  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools  but  one  teacher  is  re 
ported.  These  are  the  smallest  of  the  schools,  and  in  most 
cases  the  course  is  but  three  years.  Almost  22  per  cent,  of  the 
schools  get  along  with  two  teachers,  while  nearly  a  third  have 
but  three.  Less  than  6  per  cent,  have  a  force  of  more  than  ten 
teachers,  and  these  are  all  larger  city  schools,  where  depart 
mental  organization  is  complete  and  efficient. 

While  in  many  of  our  schools  the  small  number  of  teach 
ers  suffices  to  meet  the  demands,  in  many  others  the  greatest 
obstacle  to  the  best  results  is  the  shortage  in  the  teaching 
force.  "Only  progressive  scholars  can  maintain  for  many 

[118] 


43 

years  the  mastery  of  even  a  single  subject,  "  1  and  the  necessity 
of  teaching  a  diversity  of  subjects,  as  well  as  having  from 
seven  to  ten  hours  a  day  in  the  class  room,  as  is  often  the  case 
even  in  some  of  our  larger  high  schools,  is  not  conducive  to 
the  highest  efficiency  of  the  secondary  school. 

PREPARATION  OF  TEACHERS 

Total  Number  of  teachers  reporting 1344 

Percentage  of  Normal  graduates 15.6 

Percentage  of  College  graduates  54-4 

Percentage  haying  attended  higher  schools,  not  graduating 17.2 

Percentage  who  are  high  gchool  graduates  only 14.8 

NUMBER  OF  TEACHERS  HOLDING  ADVANCED  DEGREES 
Master's 41         Doctor's 1 1 

The  fact  that  15.6  per  cent,  of  our  high  school  teachers  are 
normal  graduates  and  54.4  per  cent,  college  graduates,  is  of  lit 
tle  value  in  measuring  their  real  preparation.  The  colleges 
and  normal  schools  represented  are  of  all  grades,  and  the  fact 
that  so  many  of  our  teachers  hold  diplomas  from  them  is 
chiefly  significant  as  indicating  a  general  consensus  of  opinion 
with  regard  to  the  necessity  of  special  and  professional  train 
ing  for  secondary  school  teachers.  The  preparation  of  14.8  per 
cent,  of  the  high  school  teachers,  however,  as  reported,  in 
cludes  no  higher  training  than  that  given  by  a  high  school 
course.  Teachers  of  this  rank  are  principally  confined  to  the 
smaller  schools.  On  the  other  hand,  forty-one  teachers  hold 
the  master's  degree  and  eleven  the  doctor's,  advanced  scholar 
ship  finding  in  the  field  of  secondary  education  an  attractive 
pedagogical  opportunity. 

DATA  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  ENROLLMENT 

The  total  enrollment  for  the  283  schools  reporting  on  this 
point  is  34,824.  Of  these,  11773  are  boys  and  23,051  are  girls. 
The  total  attendance  of  seniors  is  4,390,  the  boys  numbering 
1,655  and  the  girls  2,735.  It  may  be  noted  as  a  matter  of  in 
terest  that  while  the  percentage  of  boys  in  the  total  enroll 
ment  is  but  33.8,  they  constitute  37.5  per  cent,  of  the  senior 
class. 

i  Charles  W.  Eliot.   "  The  Unity  of  Educational  Reform,"  Ed.  Rev.  VIII.,  p.  221 . 

[II9J 


44 

CONCLUSION 

Certain  tendencies  in  the  trend  of  secondary  education  in 
Illinois  are  made  apparent  by  this  investigation.  Perhaps  one 
of  the  most  important  of  these  is  the  tendency  in  the  direction 
of  uniformity — not  the  uniformity  which  characterizes  the 
European  secondary  school,  but  that  in  which  the  emphasis  is 
laid  upon  the  end  to  be  accomplished  rather  than  upon  the 
means  to  that  end.  More  and  more  the  school  is  regarded  as 
an  instrument  for  developing  the  latent  capacities  of  the  pu 
pil,  enabling  him  to  realize  the  highest  educational  value  of 
the  studies  he  is  able  to  pursue.  The  diversity  of  means  nec 
essarily  employed  to  effect  this  end  is  one  of  the  most  signifi 
cant  features  of  our  school  system,  and  yet  it  is  in  no  sense  in 
consistent  with  the  statement  that  there  is  a  marked  tendency 
towards  uniformity.  Notwithstanding  the  manifold  diversities 
of  the  individual  courses  of  study,  over  two  hundred  of  the 
high  schools  of  Illinois  are  able  to  send  pupils  to  the  State 
University  prepared  to  take  up  its  freshman  work.  What  the 
high  school  does  for  the  pupil  is  determined  by  the  demands  of 
an  industrial  society  on  the  one  hand  and  those  of  the  institu 
tions  of  higher  education  on  the  other,  the  two  being  in  no 
sense  antagonistic,  but  rather  complementary.  How  the  high 
school  shall  accomplish  the  ends  agreed  upon  is  a  matter  to  be 
determined  in  each  case  by  the  nature  of  the  means  locally 
available. 

The  influence  of  the  great  educational  movements  of  the 
last  decade — notably  of  the  ideals  set  forth  in  the  classical  re 
ports  of  the  National  Educational  Association — is  evident  in 
many  of  the  courses  of  study  in  our  secondary  schools.  The 
effort  to  secure  continuity  in  a  given  subject  throughout  the 
course ;  the  introduction  of  fractional  courses  into  the  curricu 
lum  ;  the  extension  of  some  of  the  so-called  secondary  sub 
jects  downward  to  the  grades  ;  the  insistence  upon  adequate 
laboratory  work  in  science  study  ;  the  broadening  and  enrich 
ing  of  the  high  school  course  in  every  field,  thus  permitting 
greater  freedom  of  election  on  the  part  of  the  pupil ; — all  these 

[120] 


45 

features  are  largely  results  of  the  numerous  conferences  of  the 
ablest  educators  in  America. 

The  entrance  of  advanced  scholarship  into  the  field  of  sec 
ondary  instruction  is  a  fact  of  far-reaching  significance  to  the 
progress  of  the  high  school.  That  some  broadly  trained  and 
highly  cultured  minds  from  our  colleges  and  universities  are 
devoting  their  abilities  to  the  service  of  the  high  school  is  a 
presage  of  hopeful  advance  in  this  field  of  education. 

Another  tendency,  somewhat  less  marked  than  the  forego 
ing,  which  it  is  believed  will  bear  noteworthy  fruit  at  no  dis 
tant  time,  expresses  itself  in  the  introduction  into  the  high 
school  curriculum  of  subjects  hitherto  regarded  as  college 
studies.  In  schools  having  a  sufficiently  large  corps  of  instruc 
tors  it  is  found  possible  by  this  means,  with  some  extension  of 
time,  to  prepare  students  for  second-year  college  work.  The 
attempt  would  of  course  be  unwarranted  without  assurance 
that  the  subjects  will  be  as  efficiently  taught  as  in  the  higher 
institution  ;  but  it  is  an  encouraging  fact  that  a  few  branches, 
notably  trigonometry,  have  already  been  so  taught  in  the  sec 
ondary  school. 

The  increasing  number  of  township  high  schools  in  Illi 
nois  is  one  of  the  most  gratifying  evidences  of  the  popular  ap 
preciation  of  secondary  education.  The  time  does  not  seem 
remote  when  the  boy  or  girl  who  lives  on  the  farm  may  ac 
quire  an  academic  training  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  most  fa 
vored  city  student. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  feature  of  our  institutional  develop 
ment  during  the  last  decade  of  greater  significance  than  the 
rapid  evolution  of  the  high  school.  It  marks  an  epoch  in  the 
rise  of  the  common  people,  and  intrenches  our  democracy  be 
hind  an  impregnable  safeguard — a  citizenship  of  intelligence 
and  independent  character.  Secondary  education  is  not  a  lux 
ury.  It  is  a  necessity. 


[121] 


46 

DESCRIPTION  OF  DIAGRAMS 

Figures  1-7  show  the  percentages  of  schools  offering  the 
principal  subjects  in  the  curriculum  for  the  various  periods  of 
time  expressed  in  hours  of  sixty  minuts.  In  Fig.  1,  beginning 
with  the  third  column,  the  curve  for  algebra  shows  that  2.4  per 
cent,  of  the  schools  teaching  algebra  give  from  40  to  50  hours 
to  the  subject.  Following  this  curve  to  the  column  marked 
161-200,  the  height  of  the  line  indicates  that  this  number  of 
hours  is  devoted  to  algebra  by  26.6  per  cent,  of  the  schools 
teaching  it.  In  like  manner  the  periods  of  total  time  for  any 
any  of  the  subjects  may  be  determined  by  reference  to  the 
proper  figure,  the  height  of  the  curve  indicating  percentages, 
and  the  columns  the  number  of  hours. 

Figure  8  represents  approximately  the  total  number  of 
hours  of  sixty  minutes  offered  by  all  of  the  high  schools  of 
Illinois,  taken  together,  in  each  of  the  several  groups  of  the 
curriculum.  These  totals  express  the  time  that  may  be  taken, 
and  not  the  time  required.  In  many  of  the  schools  some  of 
the  subjects  are  elective.  In  many  schools  offering  4  years' 
Latin  and  requiring  4  years'  foreign  language  study,  2  years 
may  be  devoted  to  Latin  and  2  to  a  modern  language.  The 
ordinates  in  the  figure  express  thousands  of  hours.  Thus,  the 
ordinate  for  mathematics,  extending  almost  to  the  line  marked 
100,  means  that  approximately  100  thousand  hours  are  offered 
in  the  mathematical  subjects  in  the  high  schools  of  Illinois. 

In  Figure  9  are  shown  the  percentages  of  schools  offering 
the  various  subjects  of  the  curriculum.  The  numbers  at  the 
top  or  bottom  of  each  of  the  vertical  lines  indicate  percent 
ages.  The  line  for  algebra,  extending  to  the  line  marked  100, 
shows  that  all  of  the  high  schools  of  Illinois  offer  algebra  in 
their  curricula.  The  ordinate  for  solid  geometry,  extending 
beyond  the  line  marked  60,  expresses  the  fact  that  approxi 
mately  63  per  cent,  of  the  high  schools  offer  this  subject. 

The  grouping  of  subjects  in  Figures  1-7  is  somewhat  ar 
bitrary,  determined  largely  by  convenience  ;  as  far  as  possible, 
however,  related  subjects  are  grouped  together. 

[122] 


47 


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GEOMETRY     PLANE 


TRIGONOMETRY 
ARITHMETIC 
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DESCRIPTIVE  GEOMETRY 


ENGLISH 

T^VT/'TT    TA.t-4 


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GREEK 
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ENGLISH  &•  ANCIENT  ^  "> 
ENCLISH    HISTORY 
AMERICAN 
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MEDIEVAL  &.MODEEN 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY 


CHEMISTRY 


GEOLOGY 
PSYCHOL  OC3Y 


COMMERCIAL  GfOC. 


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CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY 


FgEE  HAMP 
DRAWIKI G ,  MECHANICALlL 


ELOCUTION 

FORMAL  SPELLING 


MU6>IO 
MYTMOLOC3Y 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE 
RE:  VIEWS 


53 


FIG.  1O. 

TABLE  SHOWING  THE  TOTAL  NUMBER  OF  HOURS  OF  SIXTY  MINUTES  OFFERED  BY 
ALL  THE  ILLINOIS  HIGH  SCHOOLS  IN  EACH  OF  THE  SEVERAL  SUBJECTS 


Algebra 47, 560 

Geometry — Plane 33,840 

Geometry — Solid 10,960 

Trigonometry 1,010 

Arithmetic 3,54° 

Bookkeeping 7.610 

Descriptive  Geometry 63 

English  Grammar 480 

English  Compositton 3i>62O 

Rhetoric 20,860 

English  Literature 52,170 

Latin 100,350 

German 27,540 

French 9,400 

Greek 9,120 

Spanish 170 

Swedish 440 

General  History 30,410 

English  and  American  History. .   2i<6oo 

Ancient  History 95 

Greek  and  Roman  History 10,500 

Medieval  and  Modern  History. .  .        670 

French  History 140 

Civics 15,200 

Political  Economy 2,210 


Physics 38,660 

Chemistry 20,840 

Botany 19,650 

Zoology 19,070 

Biology 690 

Physiology 14,53° 

Astronomy 4,740 

Physiography 14,880 

Geology 2,390 

Psychology . , 380 

Commercial  Geography 300 

Commercial  Law 320 

Constitutional  History 45 

Drawing — Free-hand 9,630 

Drawing — Mechanical 320 

Elocution 350 

Formal  Spelling 220 

History  of  Commerce 260 

Manual  Training 1,120 

Music 760 

Mythology 30 

Pedagogy 140 

Physical  Culture 420 

Reviews 360 

Stenography  and  Typewriting... .  480 


[129] 


54 


TITLES  OF  ARTICLES  PUBLISHED  BY  THE  CORPS  OF  INSTRUCTION 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS,  BETWEEN  MAY  6,  1901,  AND  MAY  15,1902 

PRESIDENT  A.  S.  DRAPER — 

"  The  University's  Return  to  the  State," 

Commencement  address,  University  of  Minn.,  jr.ne  6,  1901.     The 

Minnesota  Daily. 
"Our  State  Universities," 

Outlook  (Annual),  Aug.  3,  1901. 
"  President  William  McKinley," 

Published  by  the  University  of  Illinois,  Sept.  19,  1901. 
"  The  Element  of  Inspiration  in  the  Schools," 

Regents  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Dec.  26,  1901 . 
"  "  Educational  Tendencies,  Desirable  and  Otherwise," 

Educational  Review,  May,  1902, 
•'  "  Shall  the  Use  of  the  Terms  '  College  '  and  'University'  be   Restricted 

by  the  State?  " 

Educational  Review,  June,  1902. 
BAKER,  I.  O.— 

''Good  Roads  and  Civilization," 

Proceedings  111.  Society  of  Engineers,  1902  ;  also  in  Eng'g  News, 
Feb.  6,   1902;  Engineering   Record,   Feb.  15,  1902,  and  else 
where. 
"Illinois  Earth  Roads," 

(Read  before   111.   Corn  Growers'  and   Stockmen's  Assoc.,  Jan.  2, 
1902);  Drovers' Jour.,  Jan.  28,  1902;  Good  Roads,  April,   1902. 
"  "  Traction  on  Wagon  Roads," 

Engineering  News,  Mar.  6,  1902.      Also  in  Clay  Worker,   April, 

1902,  and  Brick,  May,  1902. 
"Limitations  on  Road  Improvements," 

The  Automobile,  April,  1902. 
"  Earth  Road  Construction  and  Maintenance," 

The  Automobile,  April.  1902. 
"  Steel  Wheelways  for  Wagon  Roads," 

Engineering  News,  May  8,  1902. 
BALDWIN,  E.  C.— 

"  Ben  Johnson's  Indebtedness  to  the  Greek  Character  Sketch," 

Modern  Language  Notes,  Nov.,  1901. 
BEAL,  A.  C.— 

"  The  Farmer's  Flower  Garden," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Mar.,  1902. 
"  "  The  Window  Garden," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Mar.,  1902. 


55 

BLAIR,  J.  C.— 

"  Spraying  for  Apple  Scab," 

Western  Fruit  Grower,  Feb.,  1902. 
"  "  Fruit  Storage  Experiments," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Feb.,  1902. 
BLAIR,  J.  C.  AND  STUBENRAUCH,  A.  V.— 

"Field  Work  with  Bitter  Rot  During  1901," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Feb.,  1902. 
BRENKE,  W.  C.— 

"  An  Observational  Determination  of  the  Apparent  Figure  of  the  Sky," 

Popular  Astronomy,  June  and  July,  1901. 
"  "  Observations  of  Nova  Persei," 

Popular  Astronomy,  June  and  July,  1901. 
"  "  The  Leonids  of  1901," 

Popular  Astronomy,  Feb.,  1902. 
BROOKS,  X.  C.— 

"  The  Lamentations  of  Mary  in  the  Frankfurt  Group  of  Passion  Plays," 

Jour,  of  Germanic  Philology,  Vol.  3,  1901. 
BROOKS,  S.  D. — 

"  Problems  of  the  Small  High  School," 

School  News,  June,  1901. 
"  "  Electives  in  the  Small  High  School," 

School  Review,  Nov.,  1901. 
"  "  A  Proposed  Course  of  Study  for  a  Small  High  School," 

School  News,  Dec.,  1901. 
"  "  A  Suggested  Course  in  Physics  for  a  Small  High  School," 

New  England  Jour,  of  Education,  Dec.  26,  1901  ;  Jan.  2,  9,  and  16, 

1902. 
•'  "  The  Functions  of  the  High  School  of  Today," 

Proceedings  of  N.  E.  A.,  1901. 

"  "  The  Biological  Laboratory  in  the  Small  High  School," 

Jour,  of  Applied  Microscopy,  Jan.,  1902. 

BROOKS,  MORGAN— 

"  Interior  Lighting," 

The  Blue  Print,  pub.  by  University  of  Nebraska,  1902. 

BURR1LL,  T.  J.— 

"  Some  Diseases  of  Apple  Trees  and  their  Fruits," 

Transactions  of  111.  State  Hort.  Society,  1901. 
"  Bitter  Rot  of  Apples," 

Transactions  111.  State  Hort.  Society,  1901. 
CLARK,  T.  A.— 

"  Biographies  of  Lowell,  Holmes  and  Emerson, 

C.  M.  Parker,  Taylorville,  111. 
"Supplementary  Reading  for  Seventh   and  Eighth  Grades," 

School  News,  Monthly,   1901-02. 

[130 


56 

CLINTON,  G.  P. — 

"  Apple  Scab,'' 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp,  Station  Bull.,  Dec.,  1901. 
"  "Apple  Rots  in  Illinois," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Feb.,  1902. 

COLVIN,  S.  S.— 

"  History  Teaching  in  the  First  Two  Years  of  the  High  School," 

Jour,  of  Pedagogy,  Dec.,  1901. 

"  "The  Psychological  Necessity  of  Religion," 

Amer.  Jour,  of  Psychology,  Jan.,  1902. 
"  "  The  Common-sense  View  of  Reality," 

Philosophical  Review,  Mar.,  1902. 

DEXTER,  E.  G.— 

"  "  Ethics  and  the  Weather,  " 

International  Journ.  of  Ethics,  July,  1901. 
"  Some  Conditions  Influencing  Success  at  School," 

Science,  Aug.  16,  1901. 

"  "  Freedom  in  the  High  School  Course," 

Journ.  of  Pedagogy,  Dec.,  1901. 
Reprinted  in  Review  of  Education,  Mar.,  1002. 
"  The  Survival  of  the  Fittest  in  Motor  Training," 

Educational  Review,  Jan.,  1902. 
"A  Study  of  Calms," 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  Apr.,  1902. 
ERF,  O.— 

"  The  Efficiency  of  Different  Methods  of  Cream  Separation," 

Rept.  111.  State  Dairymen's  Association,  1902. 
"  "Starters," 

Rept.  111.  State  Dairymen's  Association,  1902. 
"  "  Cream  Ripening," 

American  Cheesemaker,  Jan.,  1902. 
FAIRFIELD,  G.  D. — 

Beaumarchais'  Barbier  de  Seville,  (College  Text), 
Scott,  Foresman  &  Co.,  April,  1902. 

FOLSOM,  J.  W.— 

"  Review  of  the  Collembolan  Genus  Neelus  and  Description  of  N.  muri- 

nus  n.  sp." 
Psyche,  Vol.  9,  1902. 
"  The  Identity  of  the  Snow  Flea  (Achorutes  nivicola  Fitch)," 

Psyche,  Vol.  9,  1902. 
"  "  Papers  from  the  Harriman  Alaskan  Expedition.     Apterygota," 

Proceedings  Wash.  Acad.  Science,  1902. 
FORBES,  S.  A.  — 

"Experiments  with  Insecticides  for  the  San  Jose  Scale," 
U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  May,  1902. 

[132] 


57 

FRASER,  W.  J.— 

"  Individual  Differences  in  the  Value  of  Dairy  Cows," 

U.  of.  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Nov.,  1901. 
"  "  Standard  Milk  and  Cream," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.   Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Apr.,  1902. 
"  "  Agriculture  in  Holland,"  (six  articles), 

Breeders'  Gazette,  Nov.,  1901,  to  Jan.,  1902. 

FREDERICK,  F.  F. — 

"  Plaster  Casts  and  How  They  are  Made," 

Wm.  T.  Comstock,  Sept.,  1901. 
"  The  Study  of  Fine  Art  in  American  Colleges  and  Universities," 

Fortieth  Rept.  of  Nat.  Ed.  Assoc.,  1902. 
"  Nineteenth  Century  Painting  in  England,  Scotland  and  America, 

International  Art  Assoc.,  Oct.,  1901. 

GRINDLEY,  H.  S.,  AND  SAMMIS,  J.  L.— 

"  Nutrition  Investigations  at  the  University  of  Illinois," 
Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  June,  1901. 

GRINDLEY,  H.  S.,  MCCORMACK,  H.,  AND  PORTER,  H.  C. — 
"  Experiments  on  Losses  in  Cooking  Meats," 
Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Dec.,  1901. 

HASSELBRING,  H.— 

"  Canker  of  Apple  Trees," 

Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  April,  1902. 

KETCHUM,  M.  S. — 

"Steel  Frame  Mill  Buildings," 

Proceed,  of  111.  Soc.  of  Eng's  and  Survey's,  1902. 
Revised  Edition  of  Pence  and  Ketchum's  Surveying  Manual, 
Engineering  News  Pub.  Co.,  N.  Y. 

KINLEY,  I). — 

"  European  Feeling  toward  the  United  States," 

Forum,  Oct.,  1901. 
"  Credit  Currency  and  Population,' ' 
Journ.  Pol.  Econ.,  Dec.,  1901. 

KUEHN,  A.  L. — 

Editor  of  1902  Proceedings  of  Illinois  Society  of  Engineers. 

LLOYD,  J.  W.— 

"Spraying  for  Second  Brood  of  Codling  Moth," 

Trans,  of  111.  State  Hort.  Society,  1901. 
"  Screens  for  Protecting  Garden  Crops," 

Orange  Judd  Farmer,  Jan.  n,  1902. 
,.  "  Producing  and   Marketing  Popcorn," 

Orange  Judd  Farmer,  Feb.  8,  1902. 

[133] 


58 


"  Growing  and  Marketing  Horseradish," 
Orange  Judd  Farmer,  Feb.  8,  1902. 
"  "  Small  Fruits  for  the  Northern  Half  of  the  State," 

Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Feb.,  1902. 
"Vegetables  for  a  Farmer's  Garden  in  Northern  Illinois," 

Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Feb.,  1902. 
"The  Farmer's  Vegetable  Garden," 

Farmer's  Voice  and  National  Rural,  Mar.  15,  1902. 

LLOYD,  J.  W.,  AND  STUBENRAUCH,  A.  V.— 

"Directions  and  Formulas  for  Spraying." 

Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Feb.,  1902. 

OLIVER,  E.  C.— 

"  An  Automatic  Recording  Machine," 

American  Machinist,  Feb.  27,  1902. 

PALMER,  A.  W.  AND  DEHN,  W.  M. — 
"  Ueber  Primare  Arsine," 

Berichte  der  Deutschen  Gesellschaft,  Oct.,  1901. 

PARR,  S.  W.— 

"  The  Peroxide  Calorimeter  as  Applied  to  European  Coals  and   Petro 
leum," 
Jour,  of  Amer.  Chemical  Society,  Feb.,  1902. 

RHOADES,  L.  A.  - 

"  Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans,  with  introductory  notes  and  vocabulary"(Ed). 

Appleton  &  Co.,  Nov.,  1901. 
"Special  Vocabulary  for  Schiller's  Maria  Stuart," 

Heath  &  Co.,  Jan.,  1902. 

RICKER,  N.  C.— 

"Translation  of  Professor  Wagner's  Modern  Architecture," 

Brickbuilder,  June,  July,  Aug.,  1901. 
"The  Cantilever  Arch  Truss," 
Brickbuilder,  Feb.,  1902. 

SCHMIDT,  E.  C.— 

"The  Dynamometer  Car  and  its  Uses," 

Proceed,  of  Pacific  Coast  R'y  Club,  Nov.,  1901. 

SHARP,  KATHARINE  L.— 

"  Library  Schools  on  Graduate  Basis," 

Assoc.  of  Collegiate  Alumnae  Publications,  Feb.,  1902. 

STUBENRAUCH,  A.  V.— 

"  Important  Details  of  Spraying," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  June,  1902. 
"  The  Farmer's  Fruit  Garden," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  Feb.,  1902. 

[134] 


59 

"  Some  Spraying  Lessons  Deduced  from  the  Season  of 

Transactions  111.  Hort.  Soc.,  1901. 
"  "The  California  Home  Garden  and  How  to  Make  It," 

Country  Life  in  America,  Jan.,  1902. 
"  Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  American  Horticulture, 

Vols.  III.  and  IV.,  1901  and  1902. 

TALBOT,  A.  N. — 

"The  Railway  Transition  Spiral," 

Engineering  News,  N.  Y.,  1901. 
"  "  The  Proper  Construction  and  Maintenance  of  Brick  Pavements," 

Proceed,  of  8th  Annual   Convention  of  Amer.   Soc.  of  Municipal 

Improvements,  Oct.,  1901. 
"  Report  of  Committee  on  Paving  Brick  Specifications  and  Tests," 

Seventeenth  Annual  Rept.  of  111.  Soc.  of  Engineers   and  Survey 
ors,  Jan.,  1902. 
"  Discussion  of  Sewage  Purification  Plants," 

Jour,  of  Western  Soc.  of  Engineers,  April,  1902. 
"  "  Valve  Resistance  in  Pumps," 

Jour,  of  Western  Soc.  of  Engineers,  Feb.,  1902. 
"  "  The  Transition  Spiral," 

Jour,  of  Western  Soc.  of  Engineers,  Apr.,  1902. 
WHITE,  J.  M.— 

"Architecture  of  American  Country  Homes," 

American  Kitchen  Magazine,  Jan.   and  Feb.,  1902. 


[135] 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  PUBLICATIONS  New  Series-Vot.  I.,  No.  7 


of  f  llmots 


Vol.  I  JUNE,  1902  No. 


The  Genesis  of  the  Grand  Remonstrance  from 
Parliament  to  King  Charles  I. 


By 


HENRY  LAWRENCE  SCHOOLCRAFT,  Ph.  D. 

University  of  Illinois 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THE  GRAND  REMONSTRANCE  FROM 
PARLIAMENT  TO  KING  CHARLES  I 


PART  I. 
TO  THE  KING 

The  authorship  of  the  Grand  Remonstrance  and  the  reason 
for  its  being  written  have  never  been  determined.  From  the 
time  of  the  English  Civil  War  until  the  present,  writers  have 
differed  in  their  opinions ;  Clarendon  saw  in  it  nothing  but  the 
increased  "fury"  of  the  majority  in  the  Commons  ; l  Disraeli,  a 
move  on  the  part  of  the  Lower  House  to  escape  the  impending 
wrath  of  the  King.2  Not  until  1860  did  any  one  appear  who 
knew  any  more  about  the  subject.  In  his  "  Debates  on  the 
Grand  Remonstrance,"  John  Forster  used  Sir  Simonds  D'Ewes 
manuscript  Journal  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  in  it  speeches 
till  then  unsuspected  came  to  light.  Forster  saw  that  the  Re 
monstrance  was  an  appeal  to  the  people,  but  why  such  an 
appeal  was  made  he  does  not  suggest.  This  question  was  left 
for  Ranke  to  answer,  and  he  finds  the  explanation  in  the 
troubles  caused  by  parliamentary  action  on  church  matters. 
Just  before  the  recess  in  September,  1641,  the  Commons,  with 
out  the  approval  of  the  Lords  or  the  consent  of  the  King,  had 
changed  the  established  Episcopal  service.  The  Calvinistic 
communion  tables  wrere  again  introduced,  bowing  the  head  at 
the  name  of  the  Savior  was  forbidden,  and  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Scots  was  ordained  in  all  its  severity.  The  Episcopalians  re 
sented  these  changes,  and  Episcopalianism  was  a  power  in 
p]ngland.  The  excitement  produced  by  them  in  the  country* 
and  even  in  London,  the  stronghold  of  Puritanism,  was  so  in 
tense  that  when  Parliament  reassembled  toward  the  end  of 
October,  it  was  found  that  the  measure  had  cost  the  leading 

1  History  of  the  Rebellion  and  Civil  Wars.     Oxford,  1896.      I.  Ft.  2.  396. 

2  Disraeli's  Charles  the  First.     II.,  293,  297. 

[139] 


party  some  of  its  ablest  members.  As  the  House  filled,  it 
seemed  likely  that  Pym  and  his  friends  would  lose  their  ma 
jority.  They  therefore  introduced  the  Remonstrance  to  main 
tain  their  position.1 

The  theological  controversy,  however,  was  not  the  only 
source  of  irritation  towards  the  parliamentary  majority.  A 
dispute  about  the  control  of  the  army  embittered  the  situation. 
The  rebellion  in  Ireland  broke  out  just  after  the  Scotch  and 
English  armies  had  been  disbanded,  and  Parliament  was  com 
pelled  to  put  a  new  army  into  the  field.  But  the  leaders  in  the 
Commons  felt  that  they  could  not  place  the  army  under  the 
control  of  the  King,  for  he  might  use  it,  not  against  Ireland  but 
against  the  parliamentary  opposition  in  England.  They  there 
fore  declared  that  he  could  either  u  choose  those  counselors  and 
ministers  as  should  receive  parliamentary  approval,"  or  Par 
liament  would  control  the  army.  This  ultimatum  converted 
the  Episcopalians  in  the  House  into  Royalists,  and  Pym  and 
his  friends  thought  it  necessary  to  appeal  to  the  nation  for  sup 
port.  This  appeal,  both  Mr.  Gardiner  and  Mr.  Forster  think, 
was  made  by  the  Grand  Remonstrance.  Mr.  Gardiner  says  : 
"  Pym  may  be  fairly  regarded  as  its  main  author."  2 

The  Long  Parliament  met  on  the  third  of  November,  1640. 
In  his  opening  speech,  the- King  said  that  the  Short  Parliament 
had  not  granted  him  money  because  the  members  thought  that 
Scotland  would  become  Episcopal  without  a  show  of  force,  and 
that  a  grant  was,  therefore,  unnecessary.  Now  that  force  had 
been  applied  and  failed,  he  was  sure,  he  said,  that  Parliament 
would  come  to  his  aid.  For  the  present  he  was  willing  to 
waive  his  personal  needs,  but  expected  measures  to  expel  the 
"  rebels.  "  After  this  was  done  he  would  grant  a  consideration 
of  grievances.  He  declared  further  that  the  ,£200,000  which 
had  been  borrowed  from  London  would  support  the  English 
arrny  only  until  December  1,  and  that  the  first  duty  of  Parlia- 

1  Ranke's  Works.     XVI.,  78. 

2  Gardiner's  History.     X.,  54. 

[140] 


5 

ment  was,  therefore,  to  raise  money.1  This  was  the  belief  and 
policy  of  the  Crown.  The  attitude  of  Parliament  was  soon  to 
be  shown. 

For  the  first  few  days  of  the  session  the  course  of  debate 
was  determined  by  the  petitions  presented  either  by  members 
or  by  others  who  had  felt  the  heavy  hand  of  some  agent  of  the 
Crown.  Petitions  came  from  York,  Norfolk,  Essex,  Kent,  Som- 
erset,- — in  fact  from  nearly  every  shire, — as  did  that  of  Sir  Ar 
thur  Capel  of  Herefordshire, 2  complaining  of  the  "  burdens 
and  oppressions  of  the  people  in  their  consciences,  liberties, 
and  properties,  and  especially  in  the  heavy  tax  of  ship- 
money.  " 3 

Though  the  petitions  presented  through  the  members  were, 
in  the  main,  of  a  general  nature,  some  set  forth  specific  cases. 
That  of  Susannah  Bastwick,  one  of  the  first  read,  recited  that 
four  years  previously  her  husband,  a  physician,  had  been 
brought  before  the  Star  Chamber  for  writing  and  publishing 
books  attacking  the  church ;  that  in  his  defense.  Mr.  Bastwick 
boldly  charged  the  prelates  with  despising  the  Scriptures  and 
advancing  popery,  superstition,  and  idolatry  ;  that  he  had  been 
condemned  to  pay  a  fine  of  five  thousand  pounds,  to  be  put 
into  the  pillory  and  to  lose  his  ears, 4  and  that  he  had  since 
been  kept  in  close  confinement.  The  punishment  of  Alexan 
der  Leighton  had  been  even  more  severe.  His  offense  consist 
ed  in  having  written,  in  1628,  "  Sion's  Plea  Against  Prelacy,  " 
calling  the  attention  of  the  members  to  what  he  considered 
some  of  the  worst  abuses  in  the  church.  He  wished  to  see  the 
ceremony  of  kneeling  at  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  supper 
abolished.  The  laws  of  the  church,  he  thought,  should  rest  on 
the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  and  not  of  the  King.  He  had 
also  called  the  prelates  enemies  of  God  and  of  the  State.  In 
consequence,  the  Star  Chamber  had  condemned  him  to  the 

1  Rushworth,    III.,  1279,  1302.     Ibid.    IV.,  2. 

2  Rushworth.    IV.,  2. 

3  Commons  Journal,    II.,  22.     Rush.,    IV.,  21. 

4  Rushworth,    I.,  55!?.     Commons  Journal,  II.,  22,  24. 


6 

Fleet  for  life  and  had  fined  him  ten  thousand  pounds ;  in  addi 
tion,  the  High  Commission  deprived  him  of  his  orders  and  put 
him  in  the  pillory  at  Westminster.  One  ear  was  cut  off,  his 
nose  slit,  and  the  letters  S.  S.,  "sower  of  sedition,"  branded  on 
his  face.  One  week  later  he  was  whipped,  again  put  into  the 
pillory,  and  the  other  ear  was  cut  off. 

The  effect  of  such  petitions  on  a  Puritan  House  of  Com 
mons  can  well  be  imagined.  What  wonder  that  the  discussion 
of  grievances  was  preferred  to  the  granting  of  supplies.  Of  all 
the  members  who  spoke  during  the  opening  days,  only  one  re 
ferred  to  the  financial  distress  of  the  King,  and  even  he  did 
not  advocate  immediate  action.1  The  other  speakers,  Sir  Ben 
jamin  Rudyard,  Mr.  Bagshaw,  Sir  John  Culpepper,  and  Mr. 
Harbottle  Grimston  2  each  presented  the  various  grievances  of 
the  Kingdom.  Differ  as  they  did  on  what  weighed  most  heav 
ily  on  the  people,  they  were  one  in  regard  to  the  source  of  all 
past  misgovernment.  The  King's  advisers  were  that  source. 
Later  in  the  struggle  between  King  and  Parliament,  the  au 
thorship  of  all  arbitrary  measures  was  charged  directly  to  the 
King,  but  as  yet  ''the  King  could  do  no  wrong."  His  counselors 
were  to  blame,  and  the  first  step  of  the  Commons  wras  to  se 
cure  their  removal  from  court.  A  plan  of  action  for  this  pur 
pose  was  prepared  by  Lord  Digby.3  In  his  speech,  after  review 
ing  the  grievances  of  his  county,  Dorset,  he  closed  thus  :  "  The 
humors  that  I  understand  to  have  caused  all  of  the  desperate 
maladies  of  the  nation  are  the  ill  ministers.  To  purge  them 
away  clearly,  they  must  be  first  loosened,  unsettled  and  exten 
uated  ;  which  can  no  way  be  effected  with  a  gracious  Master 

1  Sir  John  Holland's  speech,  Rush.,  IV.,  27. 

2  Rush.,    IV..  24,  26,  33,  34. 

3  Rush.    IV.,  30.     Lord   Digby's   speech  was  probably  on  the  loth,  not  on    the 
9th  as  Rushworth  says.     Rushworth  places  the   appointment   of   the    committee    of 
twenty-four  also  on  the  Qth.     The  Journals    place   that   on   the    loth.    The    connec 
tion  of  the  two  events  seems  to  justify  putting  them  on  the  same  day.     Rushworth 
seems  to  be  confused  as  to  his  dates  here,  for  he  places  Mr.   Crew's  vindication   on 
the  9th,  while  in  the  Journals  it  comes  on  the   7th.     The   petition  for    Northumber 
land  is  found  in  Rushworth  on  the  gth,  in  the  Journals  on  the    loth. 

[I42J 


but  by  duly  representing  them  unworthy  of  his  protection. 
And  this  leadeth  me  to  my  motion,  which  is,  that  a  select  com 
mittee  may  be  appointed  to  draw  out  of  all  that  hath  here  been 
presented  such  a  Remonstrance  as  may  be  a  faithful  and  lively 
representation  to  his  majesty  of  the  deplorable  state  of  the 
Kingdom,  and  such  as  may  happily  discover  unto  his  clear  and 
excellent  judgment  the  pernicious  authors  of  it.  And  that 
this  Remonstrance  being  drawn,  we  may  with  all  speed,  repair 
to  the  Lords  and  desire  them  to  join  with  us  in  it.  "  This  mo 
tion,  however,  was  passed  only  in  part.  On  November  10,  a 
committee  of  twenty-four  was  appointed1  "to  frame  from  what 
had  been  or  what  should  be  presented  to  the  House,  some  such 
way  of  declaration  as  may  be  a  faithful  presentation  to  the 
Commons  of  the  state  of  the  Kingdom,  and  any  other  com 
mittee  that  should  find  anything  fit  for  this  business  should 
report  it  to  the  House,  that  the  House  may,  if  they  find  cause, 
recommend  it  to  this  committee  to  be  from  them  presented  to 
the  House."  There  was  to  be  then  simply  a  statement  of  the 
condition  of  the  Kingdom.  Whether  it  should  assume  the  form 
of  a  Remonstrance,  and  whether  the  Lords  be  asked  to  unite  in 
its  presentation  to  the  King,  was  undetermined.  The  powers 
of  the  committee  were  also  somewhat  circumscribed,  since  they 
could  receive  no  matter  for  the  declaration  except  on  approval 
of  the  House. 

But  the  development  of  the  plan  was  interrupted.  From 
the  very  first,  Irish  affairs  had  taken  a  prominent  place  in  the 
consideration  of  the  Commons,  and  on  the  third  day  of  the 
session,  November  6,  it  was  decided  in  the  first  division  that 
the  petitions  and  complaints  from  Ireland  should  be  referred  to, 

i  The  commijtee  was  composed  of  Lord  Digby,  Sir  John  Culpepper,  Sir  T.  Wid- 
rington,  Mr.  Seldon,  Mr.  Pym,  Sir  P.  Hayman,  Sir  W.  Earle,  Sir  J.  Strangeways,  Mr. 
Bagshaw,  Mr.  Capell,  Mr.  Perd,  Sir  T.  Harrington,  Sir  Francis  Seymour,  Mr.  St. 
John,  Sir  Robert  Harley,  Sir  M.  Fleetwood,  Mr.  Grimston,  Mr.  Kerton,  Sir  J.  Clat- 
worthy,  Mr.  Pierpoint,  Mr.  Hampden,  Mr.  Crew,  Mr.  Bellassis,  Sir  B.  Rudyard.  In 
omitting  the  action  taken  by  the  Commons,  does  not  Mr.  Gardiner  omit  an  important 
fact?  It  was  the  first  definite  stand  taken  by  the  House.  The  more  momentous 
step  on  the  next  day,  the  accusation  of  Strafford,  tends  to  obscure  its  importance. 

[143] 


8 

a  committee  of  the  whole  House.1  In  the  course  of  the  debate 
Straff ord's  government  in  Ireland  was  criticised,  and  his  friends 
in  Parliament  believed  that  the  deliberations  of  the  commit 
tee  would  result  in  his  impeachment.  Accordingly  they  wrote 
him,  at  the  head  of  the  army  in  Yorkshire,  of  the  action  of  the 
Commons.  "  If,  "  said  his  informers,  "  you  come  to  London,  it 
would  be  well  to  ward  off  the  intended  blow  by  a  counter  at 
tack"  by  demanding  the  impeachment  of  those  members  of 
both  Houses  who  w^ere  privy  to  the  Scotch  invasion.  Acting 
on  this  advice,  Strafford  resolved  to  go  to  London  and  accuse 
his  accusers.  He  arrived  on  the  evening  of  the  9th,3  but  on 
the  10th,  the  day  of  the  appointment  of  the  committee  of 
twenty-four,  he  did  nothing,  possibly  because  Charles  would 
not  give  his  consent,  thinking  that  it  might  prevent  an  imme 
diate  grant  of  money.  On  the  next  day  the  Commons  had  in 
some  way  heard  of  his  plan,  but  their  action  did  not  depend 
upon  the  consent  of  a  wayward  King,  and  Pym  appeared  in  the 
Upper  House  and  accused  the  Earl  of  high  treason.  He  was 
placed  under  arrest,  the  Commons  promising  to  present  the 
formal  charges  at  a  later  date. 3 

Other  matters  of  importance  were  pressing  on  the  Com 
mons.  A  Scotch  army  was  in  England,  and  if  a  permanent 
treaty  were  made  with  it,  the  King  would  be  free  to  oppose  re 
forms.  But  reforms  were  necessary  if  English  subjects  were 
to  be  free  from  the  arbitrary  measures  of  an  absolute  mon 
archy.  The  Commons,  therefore,  were  in  no  hurry  to  see  the 
Scots  recross  the  border,  but  did  not  intend  to  let  the  English 
army  go  to  pieces  for  want  of  pay. 

On  the  9th  a  committee  was  appointed  for  the  purpose  of 
inquiring  into  the  condition  of  the  Catholics.  It  immediately 
began  its  work,  and  on  the  llth  Mr.  Newton  and  Mr.  Gray  tes 
tified  before  it  that  by  order  of  Secretary  Windebank  one  (lood- 
man,  a  priest,  and  two  Jesuits,  Fisher  and  Reynolds,  had  been 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  21. 

2  Baillie,  I.,  272. 

3  Rush.,  VIII.,  i.     Commons  Journal,    II.,  21. 

[144] 


discharged  from  the  Gatehouse,  and  that  one  Mosse.also  a  Jes- 
uite,  had  been  discharged  from  the  Newgate.  On  the  next  day 
the  keepers  of  the  prisons  corroborated  the  statements.  The 
under  sheriff  for  the  county  of  Southampton  testified  that 
although  he  had  been  ordered  by  the  King  to  seize  the  lands 
and  goods  of  convicted  recusants,  Secretary  Windebank  had 
countermanded  the  order,  and  had  placed  him  under  bond  of 
one  hundred  pounds  not  to  prosecute.  Moreover,  he  had  been 
offered  thirty  pounds  not  to  appear  in  the  House.  Such  testi 
mony  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  Puritan  members.  J-ust 
at  this  time,  too,  November  21,  one  of  the  members,  Mr.  Hay- 
wood,  while  on  his  way  to  Westminister  with  a  list  of  Papists 
in  his  possession,  was  stabbed  by  a  Roman  Catholic.  The 
wound  was  not  dangerous,  but  the  attempt  was  enough  ser 
iously  to  alarm  the  House.  The  whole  Catholic  question  was 
now  sure  to  receive  a  careful  investigation.1 

Meantime  the  committee  of  twenty-four,  appointed  Nov 
ember  10,  was  not  forgotten.  During  the  first  few  weeks  of  its 
existence  the  activity  of  the  committee  was  confined  to  the 
reception  of  material  for  the  preparation  of  a  future  possible 
declaration.  It  was  empowered  to  receive  from  petitioners  all 
such  matters  as  pertained  to  the  advancement  of  its  business.2 
On  November  30  the  petition  of  the  city  of  Norwich  and  the 
county  of  Warwick  were  referred  to  it.  On  the  16th  of  Nov 
ember  two  Southampton  petitions  were  referred  to  it,  and  on 
the  25th  of  November  it  was  authorized  to  consider  a  petition 
from  the  parishioners  of  the  Church  of  St.  Gregories,  in  Lon 
don,  concerning  injury  to  their  church.  Mr.  White  had  re 
ported  from  the  grand  committee  for  religion  that  this  church 
which,  four  years  previously  had  been  beautified  at  a  cost  of 
one  thousand  five  hundred  pounds,  had  been  almost  completely 
demolished  by  order  of  the  King  and  Council.  The  parishion- 


1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  46,  27,  33,  34,  37. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  28.      Rush.,  IV.,  45.     Rushworth  is  wrong  in  saying  that 
at  its  appointment  the  committee  had  power  to  receive   material  other  than  direct 
from  the  House. 


10 

ers  could  get  no  satisfaction  by  petitioning  the  Council,  and  the 
whole  matter  was,  therefore,  referred  to  the  committee  of 
twenty-four.1 

On  December  1  the  committee  for  the  Catholics  was  ready 
to  report.  Cases  were  cited  of  release  from  two  prisons  only, 
the  Newgate  and  the  Clink.  One  Carrell,  a  secular  priest,  who 
had  been  a  prisoner  thirty  years,  was  released  on  the  verbal  order 
of  Secretary  Windebank.  A  Dominican  friar  was  similarly 
liberated,  and  the  Secretary  threatened  Mr.  Gray,  the  appointed 
prosecutor  of  the  Catholics,  that  he  would  "  lay  him  by  the 
heels  "  if  the  monk  were  touched.  In  all  there  had  been  dis 
charged  in  one  year,  sixty-four  priests  and  Jesuits,  some  few 
by  the  |King,  others  by  warrants  of  the  Lords  of  the  Council, 
but  the  Secretary  was  responsible  for  the  most.  Of  all  the  dis 
charges,  none  had  been  according  to  law.  In  London,  and  in 
the  county  of  Middlesex,  there  had  been  issued  in  seven  years 
seventy-four  letters  of  grace  staying  the  prosecution  of  recus 
ants  and  Catholics,  and  only  four  thousand  and  eighty  pounds 
had  been  levied  on  recusants  in  thirteen  years.2  Even  in  cases 
where  there  had  been  an  attempt  to  carry  out  the  laws,  prison 
ers  had  been  released.  These  facts  made  it  clear  that  the  laws 
against  the  Catholics  had  not  been  enforced,  though  the  fault 
seemed  to  lie  not  with  the  King,  but  with  his  Secretary,  and 
doubtless  recalled  to  the  minds  of  the  members  the  words  of 
Lord  Digby  that  "  the  humors  that  had  caused  all  the  desperate 
maladies  of  the  nation  were  ill  ministers."  At  any  rate  that 
part  of  his  motion  that  had  failed  on  the  10th  was  passed  on 
December  1,  for  the  committee  of  twenty-four  was  entrusted 
with  the  preparation  of  a  humble  Remonstrance  to  his  Majesty, 
as  well  as  with  the  Pope's  pretended  nuncio.3 

The  preparation  of  the  Remonstrance,  however,  was  not 
allowed  to  interfere  with  the  immediate  adoption  of  more  vigor 
ous  measures.  What  need  of  presenting  a  Remonstrance  to  the 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  29,  35.     Rush.,  IV.,  59. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  41.     Rush.,  IV.,  68. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  42.     Rush.,  IV,,  71. 

[146] 


11 

King  when  the  Commons  could  make  reforms  in  a  surer  way? 
The  bulwarks  of  royal  absolutism  were  being  actually  over 
thrown,  or  attacks  on  it  were  in  preparation.  The  petition  pre 
sented  by  Mrs.  Bastwick  at  the  beginning  of  the  session  had 
secured  the  release  of  her  husband,  and  others  suffering  like 
punishment  for  like  causes  were  also  released.  On  December 
3,  Messrs.  Bastwick,  Burton,  and  Pryn,  appeared  in  the  House 
and  presented  their  cases.  Simply  for  having  had  opinions  of 
their  own  and  having  dared  to  express  them,  it  appeared  that 
they  had  been  condemned  to  fines  and  imprisonment.  A  com 
mittee  was  appointed  to  consider  their  grievances,  and  to  in 
vestigate  the  abuses  of  the  Star  Chamber  and  the  High  Com 


mission.1 


More  vigorous  measures  were  taken.  On  the  same  day, 
December  1,  on  which  the  committee  was  instructed  to  prepare 
the  Remonstrance,  the  Secretary  was  ordered  to  appear  in  the 
House  to  give  an  explanation  of  his  conduct.2  On  the  3rd  it 
was  determined  that  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  the  places  com 
plained  of  in  the  report  on  the  Catholics  should  secure  names 
of  recusants  from  the  church  officers  in  their  respective  par 
ishes,  and  should  proceed  against  them  at  the  next  session  ac 
cording  to  the  law.3  As  the  Secretary  did  not  appear  in  an 
swer  to  the  summons  of  the  House,  the  order  was  repeated  on 
the  3rd  and  4th.  He  still  ignored  the  summons,  however,  and 
on  the  10th  it  was  determined  to  arrest  him  and  bring  him  in, 
but  he  fled  to  France  before  the  warrant  was  served.* 

After  the  dissolution  of  the  Short  Parliament,  Convoca 
tion  had  remained  in  session,  a  condition  contrary  to  all  prece 
dent.  In  addition,  they  had  voted  the  supplies  for  the  King 
that  Parliament  had  refused,  and  they  also  changed  the  canons 
to  conform  more  nearly  to  Laud's  conception  of  church  doc 
trine  and  government.  This  irregularity  came  up  for  discus- 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  44. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  42. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  44. 

4  Commons  Journal,  II.,  44,  45.  48.     Rush.,  IV.,  91. 

[147] 


12 

sion  towards  the  middle  of  December.  On  the  15th  it  was 
voted  that  Convocation  had  no  power  to  pass  canons  without 
the  consent  of  Parliament,  and  that  those  passed  during  the 
last  Convocation  were  not  binding.1  But  the  author  of  treas 
onable  laws  must  himself  be  convicted  of  treason,  and  there 
fore  a  committee  was  appointed  to  determine  the  part  played 
by  Laud  in  the  formulation  of  the  new  canons,  and  "in  how 
far  he  had  been  an  actor  in  the  great  design  of  the  subversion 
of  the  realm  and  of  the  religion. "  The  same  committee  was 
ordered  to  prepare  articles  for  his  impeachment.  Two  days 
later,  on  the  18th,  Laud  was  accused  in  the  House  of  Lords  and 
placed  under  arrest. 2  On  the  21st  the  Lord  Keeper  of  the 
Great  Seal,  Lord  John  Finch,  was  also  accused  of  high  treason, 
and  impeached  for  having  forced  the  judges  to  deliver  an 
opinion  in  favor  of  the  legality  of  ship-money  ;  and  because 
he  had  persuaded  the  King  to  dissolve  the  Short  Parliament. 
Like  Windebank,  he  sought  safety  in  flight.3 

But  the  Commons  were  not  content  with  attacking  the 
King's  counselors.  They  wished  also  to  ensure  the  perpetua 
tion  of  constitutional  government.  Had  there  not  been  an  in 
termission  of  Parliament  they  believed  that  the  Kingdom 
would  never  have  suffered  so  much  unjust  taxation,  and  that 
Puritanism  would  have  had  a  means  of  counteracting  the  Ro 
manizing  tendency  in  the  church.  It  was  intended  that  such 
a  condition  should  never  occur  again,  and  therefore  on  Decem 
ber  24,  a  bill  for  annual  Parliaments  passed  the  first  reading, 
and  six  days  later,  the  second.  No  further  action  was  taken 
until  January  19,  when  the  bill  reappeared  as  one  for  triennial 
Parliaments.*  On  the  next  day,  thus  amended,  it  passed  the 
third  reading  and  was  sent  up  to  the  House  of  Lords. 

During  January  but  little  new  business  came  up  in  the 
Commons,  except  that  four  new  subsidies  were  voted  and  used 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  51. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  52,  54. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  55.     Rush.,  IV.,  129. 

4  Commons  Journal,  II.,  58,  60,  70.     Rush.,  IV.,  146. 

[148] 


13 

as  security  to  borrow  money  from  the  city  of  London  for  the  sup 
port  of  the  army.  Most  of  the  time  of  the  House,  however, 
was  spent  in  preparing  the  charges  against  Straff ord  and  Laud, 
and  in  securing  evidence  against  the  high  Commission  and  the 
Star  Chamber.1  Not  a  little  time  was  spent,  too,  in  the  con 
sideration  of  petitions,  the  influence  of  which  on  the  legisla 
tion  of  the  Long  Parliament  has  never  been  duly  recognized. 
At  the  opening  they  determined  the  course  of  debate  and  the 
measures  taken,  and  until  well  on  towards  the  summer  of  1641 
almost  every  important  action  is  to  be  traced  to  the  same 
source.  During  December  and  January  not  less  than  seventy 
petitions  were  presented.  It  was  in  the  consideration  of  two 
of  these  that  the  longest  and  thus  far  the  most  serious  de 
bate  of  the  session  arose.  A  petition  signed  by  some  fifteen 
hundred  citizens  of  London  had  been  presented  to  the  Com 
mons,  desiring  the  extermination  of  Episcopacy  "roots 
and  branches. "  On  January  23,  several  ministers  had  pre 
sented  a  petition,  praying  for  changes  in  church  government. 
Neither  petition  was  discussed  until  early  in  February,  when 
the  religious  question  was  raised  by  the  indignation  felt  at 
the  reprieve  of  Goodman,  a  convicted  Catholic.4  On  the  8th 
and  the  9th  the  debate  was  very  warm.  The  question  was  nom 
inally  whether  or  not  the  two  petitions  should  be  referred  to 
the  committee  of  twenty-four.  The  real  question  at  issue,  the 
first  to  draw  party  lines  in  the  House,  was  whether  the  Com 
mons  were  in  favor  of  the  reform  or  of  the  overthrow  of  the 
English  Church.  The  decision  was  postponed  for  future  dis 
cussion.  The  London  petition,  however,  and  that  part  of  the 
ministers'  petition  and  of  other  petitions  of  like  nature  that 
had  been  read,  were  referred  to  the  committee  of  twenty-four, 
increased  by  six  for  the  consideration  of  this  particular  busi- 


1  Commons  Journal  for  January. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  49.     Rush.,  IV.,  93. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  72,  73.     Rush.,  IV.,  152. 

4  Commons  Journal,  II.,  72,  73.     Lords  Journal,  IV.,  140,  141,  143, 146, 150.    Rush., 
153.  :55>  157.  i58.  l65- 

[I4Q] 


14 

ness1.  Three  days  later,  February  12,  there  was  referred  to  the 
committee  of  twenty-four  as  much  of  the  petition  of  the  Mayor 
and  burgesses  of  Gloucester  as  would  aid  in  the  preparation  of 
the  Remonstrance.2 

For  some  six  weeks  nothing  was  heard  of  the  Remon 
strance  or  the  committee  ;  instead,  the  Commons  were  contin 
uing  the  work  of  reform.  On  February  16  the  King  signed  the 
bill  for  triennial  Parliaments, 3  and  periods  of  absolutism  such 
as  England  had  seen  during  the  personal  government  of 
Charles  the  First  were  thus  made  impossible  for  the  future. 
But  this  important  step  was  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  House. 
On  March  10th  the  Commons  voted  that  the  "  legislative  and 
judicial  powers  of  the  Bishops  in  the  House  of  Lords  is  a  great 
hindrance  to  the  discharge  of  their  spiritual  function, "  and 
should  be  abolished  ;  and  on  the  next  day  it  was  determined 
that  no  judicial  position  of  any  kind  whatever  should  be  open 
to  the  clergy.4  On  February  16,  the  articles  of  impeachment 
against  Laud  had  been  sent  up  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
three  days  later  the  Archbishop  had  been  consigned  to  the 
Tower.5 

During  the  first  three  weeks  of  March  the  preparation  for 
the  trial  of  Laud's  supposed  accomplice,  Strafford,  engaged 
much  of  the  attention  of  the  Lower  House.  From  the  time  of 
his  arrest  in  the  preceding  November,  Pym  and  his  associates 
on  the  committee  had  been  accumulating  evidence  against 
Strafford,  and  preparing  the  formal  charges.  On  January  30  f) 
the  charges  had  been  completed,  and  on  February  25,  the  Earl 
had  submitted  his  answers  to  the  Commons.  The  trial  itself 
began  March  22. 7  The  proceedings  of  the  first  week  showed 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  72,73.     Lords  Journal,  IV.,  140,  141,  143,  146,  150.    Rush., 
IV.,  153,  155,  157,  158,  165. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  83. 

3  Ibid,  87. 

4  Ibid,  101,  102. 

5  Commons  Journal,  II.,  94.     Rush.,  IV.,  202. 

6  Ibid.  76,93.     Rush.,  VIII.,  22. 

7  Rush.,  VIII.,  101. 


15 

that  the  Lords  were  not  inclined  to  consider  him  a  traitor. 
The  possibility  of  acquittal  for  the  man  whose  life  had  been 
devoted  to  the  support  of  the  royal  prerogative  was  enough  to 
awaken  the  utmost  concern  in  the  Commons.  At  the  same 
time  it  became  known  that  there  was  a  plot  of  some  sort  in 
the  English  army.2  The  situation  was,  therefore,  more  seri 
ous  than  at  any  time  since  the  opening  of  Parliament.  On 
April  2,  it  was  ''  ordered  that  the  committee  of  twenty-four, 
that  was  formerly  appointed  for  the  Remonstrance  of  the  state 
of  the  Kingdom,  shall  collect  the  heads  of  such  of  the  great 
grievances  of  the  Kingdom  as  they  shall  see  fit ;  and  dispose 
them  into  the  form  of  a  petition  and  present  them  to  the 
House  ;  so  to  desire  the  Lords  to  join  with  this  House  in  pre 
senting  them  to  his  Majesty  for  redress.  "  During  the  suc 
ceeding  few  days  the  course  of  the  trial  was  not  more  favor 
able  ;  on  the  contrary,  Strafford  seemed  to  be  gaining  ground, 4 
and  therefore  it  was  determined  that  he  should  be  attacked 
in  a  surer  way.  The  Commons  could  themselves  become 
the  judges  and  ask  the  Lords  to  concur  in  their  sentence.  On 
the  I0th  a  bill  of  attainder  wras  introduced  and  passed  the  first 
reading,  and  on  the  21st  it  was  finished  and  carried  up  to  the 
Lords.5 

Since  the  first  rumor  of  an  army  plot,  on  April  1st,  fear  of 
military  intervention  had  been  constantly  growing,  until  the 
24th,  when  it  had  become  so  great  as  to  exclude  all  other  con 
siderations.6  The  English  army  was  to  be  disbanded  in  hot 
haste,  and  the  Scots  were  to  be  sent  home.  The  tension  in  the 
Commons  was  increased  when  it  was  reported  on  the  28th  that 
there  was  a  plan  on  foot  for  Straff ord's  escape.7  Though  but 

1  Ibid. 

2  Gardiner's  History,  IX.,  317. 

3  Commons  Journal,   II.,  115. 

4  Rush.,  VIII.,  46 iff. 

5  Commons  Journal,  II.,  125. 

6  Ibid,  123. 

7  Rush.,  IV.,  238. 


16 

a  rumor,  the  excitement  of  the  members  gave  it  the  value  of 
a  demonstrated  fact.  The  Remonstrance  and  the  petition  were 
now  all  the  more  imperative,  and  the  committee  of  twenty- 
four  was  ordered  to  meet  on  the  next  day,  the  29th,  and  to 
bring  in  the  Remonstrance  and  the  petition  on  the  30th.  But 
there  was  no  report,  for  the  committee  was  not  ready.  On  the 
following  Monday,  the  third  of  May,  the  worst  fears  of  the 
Commons  were  confirmed.  Two  plans  to  use  the  army  in  be 
half  of  the  King  had  been  disclosed  to  some  of  the  leading 
Puritan  members  in  both  Houses,  because  the  leaders  of  the 
two  parties  could  not  agree.  Both  plans  rested  on  the  dissat 
isfaction  that  had  arisen  in  the  army  because  Parliament  had 
seemed  to  be  more  considerate  of  the  Scotch  than  of  the  En 
glish  soldiers,  whose  pay  was  far  in  arrears.  Early  in  March, 
too,  £10,000  that  had  been  originally  intended  for  the  English 
was  given  to  the  Scotch.  Some  officers  of  the  army,  Sir  Henry 
Percy,  Colonel  Ashburnham,  Captain  Pollard,  and  Commissary 
Wilmot,  who  were  also  members  of  the  Commons,  were  so  dis 
satisfied  that  they  agreed  among  themselves  that  in  case  the 
bishops  should  be  deprived  of  their  votes  in  the  Upper  House,  or 
that  the  Irish  army  should  be  disbanded  before  the  Scotch,  or 
that  Parliament  should  not  grant  supplies  to  the  King  equal  to 
his  previous  income,  they  would  attempt  to  secure  the  army  for 
his  support.  To  their  surprise  they  found  that  others,  Suckling, 
Goring,  and  Jermin,  had  made  more  violent  propositions,  for 
they  were  in  favor  of  immediate  intervention.  Goring  was  to 
be  the  virtual  commander  of  the  army  in  place  of  Northum 
berland,  who  wanted  to  resign.  In  such  a  capacity  it  was 
thought  that  he  could  secure  the  army  for  the  King.  Charles 
was  persuaded  by  Percy  that  the  latter  plan  was  not  feasible, 
and  Goring,  thus  seeing  his  expected  command  of  the  army 
vanish  in  thin  air,  in  disgust  revealed  the  whole  matter  to 
Parliament.1  The  conspirators  were  summoned  to  the  House. 
In  order  to  secure  additional  evidence,  it  was  voted  that  all 

i  Verney  MSS.,  Jan.  15.     Ibid,  March  8.     Rush.,  IV.,  255  ;  VIII.,  735, 


17 

soldiers  revealing  what  they  knew  would  be  pardoned.  But 
military  intervention  could  not  daunt  the  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  who,  "  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God 
promised  to  defend  with  their  lives,  power  and  estates,  the 
true  reformed  Protestant  Religion,  his  Majesty's  Royal  Person, 
Home  and  Estate,  also  the  Power  and  Privileges  of  Parlia 
ment,  and  the  lawful  Rights  and  Liberties  of  the  Subject.  "  1  If 
legislative  action  could  do  it,  they  also  resolved  to  prevent  a 
dissolution  by  force,  and  a  bill  to  that  effect  was  introduced. 2 
Never  had  the  demand  for  the  Remonstrance  been  so  great. 
On  the  4th  of  May  there  was  an  order  for  the  committee  to 
be  received ;  on  the  5th  the  committee  for  the  ministers'  re 
monstrance  was  added  to  the  committee  of  twenty-four  to  as 
sist  them  in  their  labors,  and  they  were  ordered  to  bring  in 
the  Remonstrance  and  the  petition  on  the  duty  they  owed  to 
the  House.3  On  the  next  day  the  tension  was  not  so  great, 
for  it  was  known  that  the  leaders  of  the  army  plot  had  fled. 
On  the  7th  the  bill  to  prevent  the  dissolution  of  Parliament 
was  passed  and  taken  to  the  Lords,  where  there  was  a  prospect 
of  a  speedy  passage.  Two  days  later  the  King  gave  his  con 
sent  to  Strafford's  death,  *  and  with  the  disappearance  of  the 
last  serious  danger  to  the  House  disappeared  also  for  the  time 
being  all  traces  of  activity  on  the  part  of  the  committee.  The 
struggle  between  King  and  Parliament  was  to  enter  a  new 
phase. 


1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  132. 

2  Ibid,  136. 

3  Ibid,  134,  136. 

4  Rush.,  IV.,  262, 


[153] 


18 

PART   II. 
TO  THE  PEOPLE. 

The  growth  of  the  constitutional  and  religious  struggle  had 
been  thrice  reflected  in  the  plans  of  the  House  for  the  commit 
tee:  (1)  At  the  opening  of  Parliament,  the  motion  for  a  Re 
monstrance  to  the  King,  was  adopted  in  the  form  of  a  declara 
tion  to  the  House  concerning  the  state  of  the  Kingdom,  and  a 
committee  of  twenty-four  was  appointed  to  prepare  the 
declaration.  (2)  On  the  first  serious  consideration  of  church 
affairs,  the  Commons  determined  to  entrust  the  drafting  of  a 
Remonstrance  to  the  Committee,  the  end  of  what  may  be 
called  the  essentially  religious  phase  coming  in  February  with 
the  close  of  the  ecclesiastical  debates.  (3)  During  the  anxiety 
of  Stratford's  trial  and  the  army  plot,  the  plan  was  again  re 
vived.  Remonstrance  and  petition  were  to  be  presented  to  the 
King  by  Lords  and  Commons.  Although  the  plan  had  passed 
through  these  successive  stages,  the  purpose  had  remained  the 
same  ;  real  grievances  were  to  be  redressed  by  direct  appeal  to 
the  Sovereign. 

Because  of  his  financial  needs,  Charles  had  been  compelled 
to  summon  Parliament  with  the  expectation  of  an  immediate 
grant.  But  what  had  Parliament  done  ?  The  grievances  of 
the  people  had  been  discussed,  and  the  victims  of  the  Star 
Chamber  and  the  High  Commission  had  been  released.  The 
King  had  not  been  permitted  to  take  part  in  the  negotiations 
with  the  Scots,  and  had  been  forced  to  sign  two  bills,  one  pro 
viding  for  triennial  Parliaments,  and  the  other  insuring  the 
continuation  of  the  present  session  at  the  will  of  the  Com 
mons.  Two  members  of  his  council  had  sought  safety  in  flight, 
Laud  was  in  prison  awaiting  trial,  and  Straff ord  was  dead.  His 
execution  had  been  the  hardest  blow  the  King  was  called  upon 
to  bear.  The  man  whom  Charles  had  trusted  most,  and  whose 
ideas  of  government  most  nearly  approached  his  own,  had  paid 
with  his  life  the  penalty  of  faithful  service  to  the  crown.  Full 
as  he  was  of  the  idea  of  the  divine  right  of  Kings,  Charles  felt 

[154] 


19 

that  the  majority  in  the  Commons  were  his  bitter  enemies. 
After  the  events  of  the  early  part  of  the  session,  any  compro 
mise  with  them  was  now  impossible,  and  some  means  must  be 
found  by  which  they  could  be  successfully  opposed. 

Soon  after  Strafford's  death  it  became  known  that  the 
King  intended  to  visit  Scotland.1  Though  seeking  a  solution 
of  the  religious  question  and  continuing  their  reforms,  the 
Commons  were  alive  to  the  dangers  of  such  a  journey.  The  in 
vestigation  and  revelations  of  the  army  plot  had  shown  that 
the  King  was  ready  to  use  force  in  his  contest  with  Parliament. 
It  was  now  feared  that  the  Scotch  visit  was  only  a  pretext  and 
that  the  King  intended  to  secure  the  support  of  an  army.  If 
peace  were  made  with  Scotland  and  the  troops  sent  home,  the 
English  army,  the  existence  of  which  was  a  constant  menace 
to  the  House,  could  be  disbanded.  Though  begun  at  the  open 
ing  of  the  session,  only  once, — during  the  excitement  of  Straf 
ford's  trial,' — had  the  negotiations  with  the  Scots  been  carried 
on  in  a  vigorous  way.  At  the  opening  of  the  session  the 
Scotch  army  had  been  the  only  guarantee  against  the  abrupt 
dismisssal  of  Parliament  by  the  King.  But  the  army  had 
served  its  purpose  ;  reforms  had  been  introduced  and  the  bill 
preventing  the  arbitrary  dissolution  of  the  present  Parliament 
had  been  passed.  Peace,  however,  had  not  been  made  because 
other  matters  were  more  urgent.  One  month  remained  before 
the  first  week  in  July,  the  time  set  for  the  King's  departure, — 
ample  time,  it  was  thought,  for  the  ratification  of  a  treaty  of 
peace  and  for  the  disbanding  of  the  armies. 2 

At  the  opening  of  the  session,  Parliament  had  agreed  to 
the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Bipon,  continuation  of  the  negoti 
ations,  and  the  payment  to  the  Scots  of  £850  per  day  until  the 
completion  of  the  treaty.  In  January  the  Scots  had  submitted 
their  term  in  twelve  articles.  In  those  referring  to  finance 
they  requested  Parliament  to  grant  them  £514,000  as  part  pay- 

1  Calendar  of  Domestic  State  Papers,  CCCCLXXXXI.,  42. 

2  Ibid.,  CCCCLXXXI.,  44. 

[155] 


20 

ment  of  the  expenses  of  the  campaign.  Parliament  did  not 
accede  entirely  to  the  request,  though  in  February  it  had  voted 
them  £300,000  by  way  of  "  brotherly  assistance,"  and  the  Scots 
were  satisfied.1  On  May  17,  the  consideration  of  the  articles 
of  the  Scots  was  again  taken  up,  but  the  completion  of  the 
treaty  had  to  be  a  work  of  time.  It  was  necessary  that  the 
committees  of  the  two  Houses  agree  separately  and  jointly, 
and  the  articles  must  then  be  referred  to  the  respective  Houses 
for  ratification  or  change.  After  Parliament  had  completed 
the  articles,  they  must  be  submitted  to  the  Scotch  commis 
sioners  for  approval  or  reconstruction.  Though  time  was  press 
ing,  the  negotiations  begun  May  17  continued  until  June  22.' 
Even  then  the  treaty  had  to  be  referred  to  the  Parliament  in 
Edinburgh  for  ratification  and  be  returned  to  London  before 
peace  could  be  considered  an  accomplished  fact.  Clearly  the 
two  armies  would  still  be  in  the  field  at  the  time  of  the  King's 
journey,  even  if  money  had  been  at  hand,  as  it  was  not,  to  pay 
all  debts.  There  was  due  the  Scots  £120,000  arrears  in  pay, 
which  sum  on  May  21  was  offered  to  the  Scotch  commissioners 
for  the  discharge  of  the  army.  They  replied  that  they  must 
have  in  addition  part  of  the  £300,000  voted  as  a  "  brotherly  as 
sistance.  "3  On  the  26th  they  were  granted  £80.000  of  the 
sum  ;  £50,000  was  set  aside  June  12  for  the  discharge  of  part  of 
the  English  army.4  It  was  determined  that  the  debt  to  the 
counties  for  the  support'of  the  troops  should  not  be  paid  until 
the  following  November,  and  that  all  officers  from  captain  up 
wards  should  wait  for  half  of  their  pay  until  the  same  time.5 
Even  then,  when  the  Commons  on  June  17  considered  the  state 
of  the  finances,  it  was  found  that  it  required  £452,000  for  the 
discharge  of  the  armies,  and  of  that  sum  only  £155,000  was  in 
sight.  Subsidies  enough  had  been  voted  to  cover  the  whole, 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  72.    Baillie,  vol.  I.,  289.    Gardiner,  IX.,  261. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  148,  149,  150,  152,  153,  154,  157,  170,  175,  180,  182. 

3  C.  D.  S.  P.   CCCCLXXX,  53. 

4  Commons  Journal,  II.,  173. 

5  Commons  Journal,  II.,  177. 

[156] 


21 

but  the  money  had  not  come  in.1  To  aid  in  securing  it  quickly, 
a  graduated  poll  tax  was  voted  which,  it  was  expected,  would 
produce  a  large  sum  within  a  few  days.2 

But  the  completion  of  the  treaty  and  the  discharge  of  the 
armies  were  not  the  only  means  of  providing  for  the  coming 
crisis ;  a  reconciliation  with  the  King  would  remove  all  danger. 
On  June  24,  Pym  proposed  in  ten  articles  the  terms  of  a  policy 
looking  to  that  end.  According  to  the  proposals  the  King  was 
to  consent  to  the  disbanding  of  the  five  regiments,  and  the  rest 
of  the  army  as  money  should  come  in  ;  to  postpone  his  pro 
posed  journey  to  Scotland  until  both  armies  could  be  sent 
home  ;  to  remove  evil  counselors,  and  to  choose  in  their  places 
only  those  whom  Parliament  could  trust ;  the  Catholics  in  the 
service  of  the  Queen  were  to  be  dismissed,  and  only  those  ac 
ceptable  to  Parliament  to  be  received ;  the  Prince  and  the 
other  children  of  the  King  were  to  be  cared  for  by  persons  of 
trust  ;  no  Nuncio  was  to  be  permitted  in  the  Kingdom ;  the 
ports  and  the  forts  were  to  be  placed  in  proper  hands,  and  the 
navy  improved  ;  and  committees  were  to  be  appointed  from 
both  houses  to  confer  from  time  to  time  on  courses  best  suited 
to  advance  the  public  good.  These  proposals  show  that  the 
time  had  not  come,  in  the  minds  of  the  leaders  of  the  Com 
mons,  when  the  gulf  which  divided  the  two  forces  in  the  state 
could  not  be  bridged.3  These  articles  were  immediately  passed 
and  sent  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  by  the  evening  of  the 
26th,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  unimportant  matters,  they 
were  all  passed  in  that  House.  On  the  day  of  their  reception 
in  the  Lords,  a  committee  of  the  Lords  had  waited  upon  the 
King  and  secured  his  consent  to  the  first  article,  and  on  the 
26th  a  second  committee  expressed  the  desire  of  the  two 
Houses  that  he  should  postpone  his  journey  to  Scotland.  The 
King  answered  that  his  promise  was  given,  and  referred  them 
to  the  Scotch  commissioners,  who  replied  that  the  affairs  of 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  177. 

2  Ibid.  179;  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXXXI,  61. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  184. 

[157] 


22 

Scotland  could  wait  until  August  5th.  Parliament  asked  for 
the  10th,  and  the  commissioners  assented  on  condition  that 
Parliament  would  consent  to  the  departure  of  the  King  on 
that  date.  It  replied  in  the  affirmative,  and  on  the  29th  the 
second  article  was  settled.1  The  King  was  requested  to  give  an 
answer  to  the  third  article  on  July  9th.  On  the  12th  he  replied 
that  he  knew  no  evil  counselors  and  that  he  did  not  expect 
anyone  would  deter  those  whom  he  trusted  from  giving  him 
advice.2  This  reply  destroyed  Pym's  hope  of  establishing  a 
cabinet  government  and  with  it  the  possibility  of  union  with 
the  King.  The  remaining  seven  articles  were  never  presented 
for  the  King's  consideration. 

After  some  discussion,  the  poll  tax  had  been  passed  by  the 
Commons  on  the  19th  and  sent  to  the  Upper  House.3  On 
July  1st  the  Lords  had  acted  favorably,  and  on  the  3rd  it  was 
signed  by  the  King. 4  It  was  thought  that  the  bill  would  im 
mediately  bring  in  enough  to  disband  the  two  armies,  and  that 
some  money  would  even  be  left  in  the  treasury  for  the  com 
monwealth.5  A  few  days  were  spent  in  determining  the  mari 
ner  of  collecting,  and  a  few  more  in  the  receipt  of  the  first 
returns.  By  the  16th  it  was  clear  that  the  tax  was  not  produc 
ing  the  income  expected,  and  on  the  20th  it  was  clear  that  the 
revenue  would  not  suffice  to  disband  the  armies  before  August 
10th.  The  parliamentary  leaders  saw  themselves  drifting  into 
a  position  similar  to  that  of  one  month  previous, — a  position 
the  same  with  this  exception :  then  a  policy  of  reconciliation 
was  possible ;  now  it  was  not,  for  it  had  been  proposed  and 
failed.  Parliament  must  now  seek  some  other  means  to  gain 
its  ends.  If  the  King  was  to  gain  control  of  one  or  both  of  the 
armies,  Parliament  must  make  sure  of  the  people.  To  accom 
plish  this  the  committee  of  twenty-four  that  had  been  so  long 

1  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  286-295. 

2  Ibid.  306,  310. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  179-192. 

4  Lords  Journal,    IV.,  293-299. 

5  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXXXI.,  64  ;  CCCCLXXXI.,  72. 

[158] 


dormant  was  again  called  into  activity.  On  the  23d  of  July 
it  was  entrusted  with  the  drafting  of  a  Remonstrance  con 
cerning  the  state  of  the  Kingdom  and  of  the  Church.  It  was 
to  describe  the  condition  of  both  at  the  opening  of  the  session, 
and  the  acts  of  Parliament  in  regard  to  each,  the  document  to 
be  finished  and  reported  four  days  later. 1  The  Remonstrance 
thus  provided  for  was  to  differ  in  two  important  particulars 
from  all  previous  drafts.  In  the  first  place  it  was  to  report 
separately  on  the  state  of  the  Kingdom  and  that  of  the  Church. 
This  distinction  had  never  before  been  drawn.  In  the  second 
place,  and  more  remarkable,  it  was  to  set  forth  the  condition 
of  the  Kingdom  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  and  the  attempts 
at  reform ;  and  to  compare  absolutism  with  a  parliamentary 
system  of  government.  Surely,  if  Parliament  sincerely  desired 
an  amelioration  of  existing  evils,  a  Remonstrance  to  the  King 
would  have  avoided  making  these  contrasts.  For  a  petition 
would  not  be  more  likely  to  receive  the  royal  sanction  if  at  the 
same  time  there  were  placed  before  the  King  the  evil  results  of 
absolute  rule  and  the  blessings  of  a  parliamentary  regime. 
Moreover,  there  seemed  little  left  of  which  the  Commons  could 
seriously  complain.  The  intermission  of  Parliaments,  which 
Pym  considered  to  be  the  fountain  of  all  ills,  was  prevented  by 
a  bill  for  a  session  at  least  once  in  three  years ;  the  premature 
dissolution  of  the  present  Parliament  was  prevented  by  a 
special  act ;  Charles  had  forever  surrendered  his  claim  to  levy 
duties  without  a  parliamentary  grant ;  the  Star  Chamber  and 
the  High  Commission  had  disappeared  ;  Laud  was  in  prison  and 
Strafford  was  dead.  But  the  Remonstrance  was  not  meant  pri 
marily  for  the  King.  True,  it  was  to  be  presented  to  him,  but  it 
was  hardly  expected  that  it  would  be  graciously  received.  After 
he  had  refused  it,  it  would  go  to  the  people,  who  would  see  the 
Commons,  the  champions  of  their  liberties,  opposed  by  the  King? 
and  would  thus  be  won  to  the  support  of  Parliament  in  order 
that,  in  the  contest  which  the  Commons  felt  to  be  impending, 

i  Commons  Journal,  II.,  221. 

[159] 


24 

some  provision  might  be  made  for  the  preservation  of  parlia 
mentary  life  and  the  liberties  already  won 

Meantime,  no  stone  was  left  unturned  to  secure  the  dis 
banding  of  the  armies  before  the  King's  proposed  journey  to 
Scotland.  Still,  on  July  29,  the  poll  tax  had  yielded  only  £13,- 
000.  This  amount,  in  addition  to  the  £40,000  loaned  by  the 
City  of  London  and  the  £8,000  subscribed  by  individual  mem 
bers  of  the  House,  would  not  go  far  toward  paying  the  £152,000 
still  required  for  the  discharge  of  the  English  army,  and  the 
£53,000  still  due  the  Scots  for  arrears  in  pay,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  £80,000  promised  them  as  "  brotherly  assistance."  The 
Scots  were,  therefore,  asked  to  wait  until  September  for  the 
latter  sum,  and  at  the  same  time  entreated  to  be  gone  on 
August  9th,  the  day  before  the  King's  departure.  They  replied 
that  they  would  not  agree  to  depart  on  a  certain  day,  but  would 
leave  after  the  payment  of  all  arrears  and  the  £80,000.  In 
regard  to  the  latter  amount,  however,  they  said  they  owed  the 
northern  counties  £28,000  and  if  these  counties  were  willing  to 
be  paid  by  Parliament,  that  fact  would  diminish  the  sum  just 
so  much.2  It  was  quite  certain  that  the  financial  obstacles  could 
not  be  surmounted  in  time,  and  it  was  determined  again  to  ask 
the  King  to  postpone  his  journey.3  At  a  meeting  of  the  two 
Houses,  the  Commons  requested  the  Lords  to  unite  in  asking 
the  King  to  remain  in  London  yet  fourteen  days.  Some  idea 
of  the  anxiety  of  Parliament,  and  their  conception  of  the  dan 
ger  that  threatened,  may  be  drawn  from  their  resolution  to  sit 
on  Sunday,  the  8th.  In  the  morning,  after  a  six  o'clock  service, 
a  committee  of  the  Lords  was  appointed  to  wait  upon  the  King 
and  to  present  the  request  for  a  postponement  of  his  journey. 
The  King  promised  to  reply  in  the  afternoon.  In  the  mean 
time,  Mr.  Pym  introduced  a  resolution  in  the  Commons,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  reconcile  the  Scotch  commissioners  to 
the  proposed  delay.  The  Lords  agreed  to  unite  with  the  Com- 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  222,  226,  228,  230. 

2  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  334,  339. 

3  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXXXII.,  94,  95. 

[160] 


25 

mons  in  petitioning  the  King  to  send  a  commissioner  to  Edin 
burgh  to  represent  him  during  his  absence,  and  offered  also  to 
send  commissioners  of  their  own  to  the  Parliament  in  Scotland 
to  explain  why  they  had  petitioned  the  King  to  remain.  A 
committee  of  the  Lords  presented  the  resolutions  to  the  Scotch 
commissioners.  The  afternoon  brought  their  answer  as  well  as 
as  that  of  the  King.  The  Scotch  commissioners  expected  the 
King  to  arrive  in  Scotland  at  the  appointed  time,  while  the 
King  himself  agreed  to  remain  until  Tuesday  to  sign  the  treaty 
with  the  Scots.1 

The  treaty  had  returned  from  Scotland  on  August  5th.  On 
the  7th  it  passed  the  House  of  Lords  and  was  sent  to  the  Com 
mons,  but  it  did  not  come  up  for  consideration  on  the  8th,  for 
if  the  King  could  be  persuaded  to  stay  his  journey,  the  treaty 
need  not  be  hurried.  When  his  determination  became  known, 
however,  the  matter  was  immediately  pushed.  On  the  morn 
ing  of  the  9th  it  passed  its  first  and  second  readings.  In  the 
afternoon  some  changes  were  agreed  upon,  and  it  was  returned 
to  the  other  House,  where  the  Lords  agreed  to  the  amendments, 
and  submitted  them  to  the  Scotch  commissioners,  whose  assent 
was  immediately  given,  and  the  treaty  was  returned  to  the 
Commons  for  their  final  reading.  A  little  later  in  the  day  the 
Lords  sent  two  messages  to  the  Commons,  the  one  desiring  the 
passage  of  the  treaty  on  the  same  afternoon,  and  the  other  that 
unless  £220,000,  the  remainder  of  the  "  brotherly  assistance,'' 
could  be  secured,  the  treaty  could  not  be  completed.  The  Com 
mons  replied  that  they  were  unable  to  finish  the  treaty  before 
the  next  morning  ;  "as  to  the  money  due  the  Scots,  they  were 
just  passing  the  bill  for  it."  A  committee  of  the  Lords  waited 
upon  the  King  and  secured  his  consent  to  delay  a^few  hours  on 

i  Commons  Journal,   II.,  245-247.     Lords  Journal,  IV.,  350-353,    • 

Is  not  Gardiner  wrong  in  saying  that  two  requests  were  sent  to  the  King  to  stay 
his  journey,  one  on  Saturday  and  the  other  on  the  next  day?  From  the  very  first 
the  Commons  intended  to  act  in  unison  with  the  Lords.  The  latter  did  not  inform 
the  Lower  House  of  their  concurrence  till  Sunday  morning.  Commons  Journal, 
II.,  245  ;  Gardiner's  History,  IX.,  414-416. 

[161] 


26 

the  next  morning  to  sign  the  bills.  The  treaty  passed  the  final 
reading  in  the  Commons  at  the  appointed  time,  and  was  imme 
diately  sent  to  the  Lords  and  passed.  A  little  later  the  King 
appeared  in  the  Upper  House,  signed  the  two  bill  and  went  off 
to  Scotland.1  Before  his  departure,  Parliament  had  at  least 
secured  a  a  peace  with  the  sister  Kingdom,  and  in  so  far  made 
more  difficult  any  kind  of  Scotch  intervention  in  English  affairs. 

The  work  of  disbanding  the  armies  was  also  energetically 
continued.  On  the  9,th  and  10th  it  was  arranged  to  pay  the 
Scots  all  their  dues,  antrthe  commissioners  were  requested  to 
secure  the  speedy  departure  of  the  troops.  Both  Houses,  too, 
sent  letters  to  the  General  of  the  English  army,  stating  that  the 
treaty  was  now  finished,  that  the  Scots  would  soon  be  in  full 
retreat,  that  the  King  had  consented  to  the  disbanding  of  the 
army,  and,  therefore,  Parliament  desired  that  he  would  send 
the  soldiers  home  with  all  possible  speed.  But  for  the  English 
army  the  financial  problem  had  not  yet  been  solved,  and  on 
the  llth  the  future  income  from  the  poll-tax  was  offered  as 
security  to  those  members  or  other  persons  who  should  offer  to 
loan  money  for  the  "  public  service  of  the  Kingdom."  2 

Parliament  was  also  provided  for  the  worst.  On  the  day 
before  the  King's  departure  the  Commons  discussed  the  means 
of  putting  the  "  Kingdom  in  a  position  of  defense  against  all 
foreign  invasions  and  commotions  at  home."  At  a  joint  meet 
ing  of  both  Houses  on  the  14th  measures  were  taken  for  secur 
ing  the  Tower  and  all  the  forts  in  the  Kingdom.  Trusty  per 
sons  were  to  be  placed  in  charge  of  the  trained  bands,  and  the 
arms  which  were  taken  from  them  three  years  previously  were 
to  be  returned.  On  the  16th  the  Commons  informed  the  Lords 
that  they  were  apprehensive  of  the  magazine  at  Hull,  and  on 
the  next  day  the  houses  sent  a  joint  letter  to  the  General  of 
the  English  army  saying ;  "  Hull  is  a  place  of  great  importance 
(especially  by  reason  of  its  magazine)  upon  which  ill  affected 
persons  may  most  readily  have  some  design,  and,  therefore, 

1  Commons  Journal,  II. ,249.    Lords  Journal,  IV.,  256.    C.  IX  S.  P..CCCCLXXXI1I. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II. ,248,  251-252. 

[162] 


27 

both  Houses  have  determined  that  your  Lordship  shall  com 
mand  the  Mayor  of  Hull  to  secure  the  town  committed  to  his 
charge,  and  not  to  suffer  the  arms  and  ammunitions  in  the  mag 
azine  to  be  disposed  of  without  the  order  of  both  houses."  On 
the  next  day  it  was  ordered  that  £3,000  of  the  poll  money  col 
lected  in  the  county  of  Hampshire  should  be  paid  to  Colonel 
Goring  for  repairing  the  fortress  at  Portsmouth.  The  next  day 
brought  an  order  from  the  Earl  of  Newport,  Constable  of  the 
Tower,  to  stay  there  with  forty  trusty  men  to  be  paid  by  the 
Commons.1 

In  providing  for  the  defense  of  the  realm,  the  necessity  for 
the  support  of  the  people  was  not  forgotten,  for  on  August  2 
the  committee  of  twenty-four,  was  ordered  to  bring  in  the  two 
Remonstrances.  The  Remonstrance  in  two  parts  had  now 
fallen  into  two  separate  Remonstrances.2  On  the  next  day 
there  was  another  change  equally  important.  The  committee 
of  twenty-four,  which  had  been  appointed  on  the  10th  of  the 
previous  November,  and  at  different  times  had  played  a  very 
important  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Commons,  was  sup 
planted  by  a  new  committee  of  eight,  at  the  head  of  which 
was  Mr.  Pym,  whose  name  was  followed  by  that  of  Sir  John 
Culpepper,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Mr.  Hampden,  Mr.  Fiennes,  Mr. 
Strode,  Sir  Walter  Earle  and  Oliver  St.  John.3  In  the  inter 
val  of  eight  months  which  had  elapsed  since  the  appointment 
of  the  old  committee,  many  changes  had  occurred.  Digby  and 
Seymour  had  been  removed  to  the  Upper  House.  Another, 
Hay  man,  was  dead.  The  old  committee  certainly  contained 
the  names  of  members  who  opposed  the  majority  on  the  reli 
gious  question  ;  others,  probably,  were  not  thought  worthy  of 
being  entrusted  with  the  true  reasons  for  the  framing  of  the 
Remonstrances.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  reasons  for  the 
dissolution  of  the  old  committee,  the  personnel  of  the  new  was 
a  sufficient  guarantee  that  the  matter  was  to  betaken  seriously 

1  Commons  Journal,  II. ,247,  249,257,  260.     Lords  Journal,    IV.,  366,367,  369. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  232. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  234. 

[163] 


28 

in  hand  and,  if  necessary,  pushed  to  a  rapid  conclusion.  On 
the  7th,  the  Saturday  before  the  King's  departure,  the  commit 
tee  on  Remonstrances  was  ordered  to  meet  on  the  following 
Monday  morning.1  But  there  was  more  delay,  as  is  shown  by 
an  order  of  the  Commons,  passed  on  the  12th,  which  is  of  very 
great  value  in  throwing  light  upon  the  authorship  of  the  Re 
monstrance.  It  has  been  shown  that  on  August  2  and  3  the 
committee  of  twenty-four  had  been  supplanted  by  a  committee 
of  eight ;  and  that  the  Remonstrance  which  at  different  times 
had  been  under  consideration  since  the  previous  December  had 
fallen  into  two  separate  Remonstrances  ;  one  on  the  state  of 
the  Kingdom,  the  other  on  the  state  of  the  Church.  It  was 
now  ordered  "that  Mr.  Pym,  Mr.  Hampden,  Mr.  Strode,  and  Sir 
John  Culpepper  bring  in  the  Remonstrance  on  the  state  of  the 
Kingdom  on  Saturday  morning  next ;  and  Mr.  Fiennes  and  Sir 
Henry  Vane  the  Remonstrance  on  the  state  of  the  Church  at 
the  same  time."  The  Remonstrance  on  the  state  of  the 
Kingdom  was  thus  put  in  the  hands  of  men  who  had  demon, 
strated  in  their  Parliamentary  life  that  they  saw  in  the  per 
version  of  the  civil  government  the  cause  of  the  disorders  of 
the  Kingdom.  Pym's  whole  life  was  an  exposition  of  his  belief 
in  the  principle  that  if  civil  affairs  were  rightly  managed  reli 
gious  affairs  would  take  care  of  themselves.3  This  conviction 
compelled  him  in  the  opening  days  of  the  Long  Parliament  to 
seek  a  remedy  for  misgovernment  in  the  removal  of  the  Earl 
of  Straff ord.  It  was  this  conviction  that  induced  him  to  pre 
pare  in  June  the  compromise  with  the  King  on  the  basis  of  a 
cabinet  government  ;  and  it  was  surely  because  of  the  same 
conviction  that  he  was  now  found  at  the  head  of  the  commit 
tee  for  the  state  of  the  Kingdom.  Never,  with  but  one  excep 
tion  in  the  Short  Parliament,  when  the  representative  body 
had  not  yet  determined  on  the  method  of  resisting  the  usurpa 
tions  of  the  crown,  had  he  ever  been  prominently  connected 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  244. 

2  Ibid.  253. 

3  Rush.,  III.,  1131. 

[164] 


29 

with  any  religious  measure.1  Even  in  the  religious  debates  in 
February,  when  the  first  parties  began  to  appear  in  the  House, 
he  was  comparatively  a  spectator.  Hampden's  trial  for  his  re 
fusal  to  pay  ship  money,  not  any  opposition  to  innovations  in 
the  Church,  had  made  him  famous.  Strode  had  introduced  the 
bill  for  annual  Parliaments,  and  Mr.  Culpepper's  only  extant 
speech  previous  to  this  time  was  directed  chiefly  against  the 
civil  grievances.2 

The  framers  of  the  Remonstrance  of  the  state  of  the 
Church  were  equally  confident  that  in  the  misgovernment  in 
religious  affairs  was  to  be  found  the  cause  of  internal  strife. 
"  Mr.  Fiennes  had  spent  some  time  in  Geneva  and  in  the  can 
tons  of  Switzerland,  where  he  improved  his  disinclination  to 
the  church  with  whose  milk  he  had  been  nurtured."  8  Early  in 
December  the  presentation  of  the  London  petition  opened  the 
religious  question,  and  on  the  14th  of  December  Mr.  Fiennes 
spoke  at  length,  and  declared  that  the  canons  passed  at  the  last 
Convocation  were  "not  only  contrary  to,  but  destructive  of,  the 
principal  and  fundamental  laws  of  the  Kingdom.  The  authors 
have  assumed  unto  themselves  a  Parliamentary  power  of  a 
very  high  degree. "  They  have  not  only  defined  the  power  of 
the  King,  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  and  what  property  he  hath 
in  his  goods  ; "  but  have  also  "  under  great  penalties  forbid  all 
persons,  vicars,  curates,  etc.,  to  speak  in  any  other  way  than  as 
they  defined  ;  by  which  means,  having  seized  upon  all  the  con 
duits  whereby  knowledge  is  conveyed  to  the  people,  how  easy 
it  would  be  to  undermine  the  King's  prerogative  and  to  sup 
press  the  subject's  liberty  or  both."  He  continued  with  a  dis 
cussion  of  the  individual  canons,  and  concluded  with  the  mo 
tion  that  they  be  "damned  as  destructive  of  the  rights  of 
Parliament  and  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  Kingdom."1  Till 
the  momentous  debates  in  February  on  the  committal  of  the 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  16. 

2  Rush,,  IV,,  33. 

3  Clarendon's  History,  edited  by  Macray,  I.,  247. 

4  Rush.,  IV.,  105. 

[165] 


30 

London  petition  to  the  first  committee  for  the  Remonstrance 
he  appears  to  have  taken  no  important  part  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  Commons.  Then,  however,  in  reply  to  Lord  Digby,  he 
found  that  "the  chief  and  principal  cause  of  all  the  evils  that 
they  had  suffered  in  State  and  Church  since  the  Reformation 
proceeded  from  that  division  that  had  sprung  up  amongst  them 
about  church  government  and  ceremonies."  Other  causes  of 
disturbance,  as  Catholicism,  "supplemented  and  worked  in 
harmony  with  it ;  or  others,  such  as  the  evils  that  were  suffered 
in  civil  liberties  and  right  of  property  proceeded  out  and  acted 
from  it."  The  "roots  of  the  evil "  were  not  found  in  the  char 
acter  of  the  dignitaries  of  the  church,  but  in  the  form  of  gov 
ernment.  The  ecclesiastical  law  contained  too  much  civil  law. 
It  was  contrary  not  only  to  the  precept  and  practice  of  Christ 
and  the  Apostles,  but  was  also  incompatible  with  human  na 
ture.  "  Until  the  Ecclesiastical  Government  be  framed  some 
thing  of  another  twist,  and  be  more  assimilated  into  that  of  the 
commonwealth,  I  fear  that  the  Ecclesiastical  Government  will 
be  no  good  neighbor  to  the  civil  but  will  be  still  casting  off  its 
leaven  into  it  to  reduce  that  also  to  a  sole,  absolute  and  arbi 
trary  way  of  proceeding.  And  herein  I  do  not  believe  that  I 
utter  prophecies,  but  what  we  have  already  found  and  felt. "  1 
Mr.  Fiennes's  associate  on  the  committee  for  the  Remon 
strance  on  the  state  of  the  Church  was  not  satisfied  with 
merely  giving  the  "ecclesiastical  government  another  twist." 
He  favored  its  total  extermination.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  jr.,  had 
also  spent  some  time  in  Geneva  and  "after  his  return  to  Eng 
land  contracted  a  full  prejudice  and  bitterness  against  the 
Church,  both  against  the  form  of  government  and  the  liturgy."  3 
He  spent  some  time  in  New  England,  where  his  religious  ideas 
were  certainly  not  mollified.  On  his  return  he  was  made  asso 
ciate  in  the  office  of  treasurer  of  the  Navy  and  elected  to  the 
Long  Parliament  where  he  furnished  the  most  telling  evidence 
against  Strafford,  and  in  company  with  Cromwell  introduced 


1  Rush.,  IV.,  174. 

2  Clarendon's  History,  I.,  247. 


[166] 


31 

the  bill  for  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy.1  Why  Episcopacy 
should  be  abolished  is  given  in  a  speech  delivered  by  him  at  a 
committee  meeting  June  12.  He  first  referred  to  a  resolution 
of  the  House  on  the  day  previous  to  the  effect  that  the  Church 
government  had  been  found  by  long  experience  to  be  a  great 
impediment  to  the  perfect  reformation  and  growth  of  religion, 
and  very  prejudicial  to  the  State.  He  said  that  in  his  opinion 
that  was  enough  to  decide  the  question  ;  "for  the  end  of  church 
government  is  the  advancement  of  religion,  but  when  it  be 
comes  destructive  of  that  end,  it  should  go.  Doubly  so  when 
it  contaminates  the  laws,  the  prerogative  of  the  King,  and  the 
liberties  of  the  subject.  .  .  .  That  the  whole  building 
(church  government)  is  rotten  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  may 
be  seen  from  a  consideration ;  first,  of  the  fact  that  the  same 
principles  support  the  papacy  and  the  Bishops.  Secondly, 
Episcopacy  is  the  result  of  pride  exalting  itself  in  the  temple 
of  God  first  above  its  fellow  presbyters  under  a  form  of  bishop, 
then  over  its  Bishops  under  the  title  of  Archbishop,  and  then 
still  mounting  over  those  of  its  own  profession  till  it  comes  to 
be  Pope,  when  it  sticks  not  to  tread  upon  the  necks  of  Princes, 
Kings  and  Emperors  and  trample  them  under  foot.  Thirdly,  let 
us  judge  it  by  its  fruits,  and  let  it  stand  or  fall  as  its  influence 
in  Church  and  State  has  been  good  or  bad.  In  the  Church  it 
has  let  in  superstition  and  corruption.  Many  goodly  ministers 
have  been  displaced  and  the  most  religious  of  all  sorts  and  con 
ditions  have  been  banished  from  the  Kingdom.  Schism  and 
factions  have  arisen  at  home,  and  the  Church  has  been  sepa 
rated  from  the  reformed  Churches  abroad,  also  the  prodigious 
monster  of  the  late  canons,  whereby  they  had  designed  the 
whole  nation  to  a  perpetual  slavery  and  bondage  to  themselves 
and  their  superstitious  inventions.  The  fruits  in  the  State  are 
as  great.  The  countenancing  of  all  illegal  projects  and  pro 
ceedings  by  teaching  the  lawfulness  of  arbitrary  power  ;  the 
overthrow  of  all  processes  at  common  law,  that  reflected  never 

i  Gardiner,   IX.,  381. 

[167] 


32 

so  little  upon  their  courts ;  the  war  between  the  two  nations, 
and  increasing  the  flame  of  their  councils,  canons  and  subsi 
dies,  and  the  plots,  practices,  and  combinations  during  this 
parliament ;  these  all  are  the  fruits.  You  may  judge  the  tree. 
Let  us  then  not  halt  between  two  opinions,  but  pass  this  bill 
we  are  now  upon." 1 

The  report  shows  how  sound  was  the  judgment  of  the  Com 
mons  in  entrusting  Mr.  Fiennes  and  Sir  Henry  Vane  with  the 
preparation  of  that  part  of  the  Remonstrance  which  concerned 
church  matters.  That  the  members  entrusted  with  the  prepar 
ation  of  the  Remonstrance  on  the  condition  of  the  State  were 
also  still  at  work  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  on  August  14  the 
committees  for  the  Remonstrances  were  ordered  to  meet  on  the 
same  afternoon,  and  bring  in  these  Remonstrances  with  all  con 
venient  speed.2  It  is  at  this  time,  too,  that  Mr.  Rushworth 
writes  that  many  articles  of  the  Remonstrances  were  discussed 
in  the  House  of  Commons.3  Perhaps  the  work  of  the  com 
mittee  was  nearing  completion. 

On  his  way  to  Scotland  the  King  had  reviewed  the  Scotch 
army,  and  on  September  14th  arrived  in  Edinburgh.4  Evidently 
he  intended  no  immediate  attack  on  Parliament,  and  the  relief 
felt  in  the  Commons  was  very  great.5  With  the  passing  of  the 
crisis,  all  indications  of  the  activity  of  the  committees  once 
more  disappeared. 

The  Commons  were  uncertain,  however,  whether  it  was 
safe  to  trust  Charles  alone  in  Scotland,  and  therefore  they  de- 

1  Rushworth  gives  no  speech  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  jr.     This  speech  was  found  in 
a  volume  entitled,  "Speeches  and  Passages  of  the  Great  and  happy  Parliament  from 
the  third  of  Nov.  to  this  instant,  June,  1641." 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  257. 

3  Rush,  I V.,  375.     He  is  wrong,  however,  when  he  says   (IV7.,  273)   that  from 
the   i8th  until  the  26th  the  time  of  the  Commons  was  taken  up  in  the  debates  on 
the  Remonstrance  and   the  levying  of  poll   money.      Mr.  Rushworth  was  not   pre 
sent  in  the  House  at  that  time.     On  the  iQth  he  was  ordered  to  York  to  carry  the  com 
mand  of   Parliament  to  the  Lord  General.      He  did  not  return  until  after  the  24th. 
(Commons  Journal,  II.,  265,  269).     Gardiner  says  that   the  Remonstrance   was    not 
discussed  until  after  November  i.-    History,  IX.,  41. 

4  Nicholas  papers,  I.,  8. 

5C.  D.  S.  P.,   CCCCLXXXIII.,8i. 

[168] 


33 

termined  on  the  day  of  his  departure,  to  send  a  commission  of 
their  number  to  Edinburgh.  In  view  of  the  possibility  that  the 
King  would  not  approve  the  appointment  of  a  commission  to 
watch  himself,  the  Commons  determined  to  appoint  it  in  a  way 
which,  while  perhaps  extra-legal,  would  yet  accomplish  their 
purpose.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  Kings  had  issued  ordinances, 
acts  which  had  the  force  of  law  without  the  consent  of  Par 
liament,  and  that  weapon  was  now  used  against  the  Crown- 
On  the  morning  of  the  20th,  Mr.  Pym  reported  the  first  Parlia 
mentary  ordinance.  The  commissioners  were  authorized  to 
present  to  Charles  from  time  to  time  the  advice,  the  counsels 
and  the  desires  of  Parliament.  The  Lords  immediately  agreed 
to  the  new  plan,  and  the  commissioners  departed  for  Scotland 
with  the  intention  of  watching  the  King.1 

The  work  of  disbanding  the  armies  had  gone  on.  Soon 
after  the  llth,  £12,750,  the  residue  of  all  the  money  due  the 
Scots,  was  paid  to  the  commissioners.2  Before  the  20th,  the 
cannon  and  carriages  had  been  sent  away,  and  on  that  day  the 
bulk  of  the  army  left  Newcastle.3  On  August  25  the  army 
crossed  the  Tweed  and,  with  the  excption  of  four  thousand  foot 
and  five  hundred  horse,  which  were  kept  under  arms  in  the 
vicinity  of  Edinburgh  "  until  all  matters  were  quieted  and 
settled,"  immediately  broke  up.  After  some  delay  caused  by  the 
difficulty  of  raising  money  to  pay  the  troops,  the  English  army 
was  also  finally  "almost  quite  disbanded  "  on  September  9th. 

As  the  summer  drew  to  a  close  the  attendance  in  the  Com 
mons  had  gradually  diminished.  The  three  hundred  and 
twenty-five  of  February  had  decreased  to  two  hundred  and  fifty 
in  July.  On  August  7th,  the  day  before  the  Sunday  session, 
the  House  numbered  only  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight.  By 
the  13th.  that  number  had  diminished  to  one  hundred  and 
thirty-one.  The  plague  and  small-pox  were  raging  in  West- 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  249,  256.  258-9,  262-3.     Lords  Journal,  IV.,  362,  360,  370, 
372. 

2  Ibid,  252. 

3  C.  D.  S.  P..  CCCCLXXXIL,  78,  79. 

[169] 


34 

minster  and  London,  and  in  the  week  ending  August  26,  one 
hundred  and  thirty- one  people  died  of  the  pest  and  one  hun 
dred  and  eighteen  of  the  small-pox.  The  members  must  have 
been  weary  from  the  exertions  and  excitement  of  the  session, 
for  as  early  as  August  23  the  matter  of  a  recess  had  been  men 
tioned,  and  on  the  27th  at  a  joint  session  the  Commons  pro 
posed  a  recess  from  September  8  to  October  20.  The  Lords 
agreed  to  the  time  of  adjournment  but  wished  to  prolong  the 
recess  till  November  1.  At  another  conference  the  Lower 
House  expressed  a  desire  to  reassemble  at  the  earlier  date,  to 
which  the  Lords  at  once  assented.1 

But  the  work  of  the  session  was  not  quite  finished.  On 
August  17,  when  the  fear  of  the  union  of  the  King  and  army 
for  an  attack  on  Parliament  wras  not  quite  over,  the  Commons 
had  proposed  to  the  Lords  the  disarming  of  the  Recusants.  Al 
though  the  danger  had  blown  over  and  the  members  of  Parlia 
ment  felt  so  safe  that  they  determined  to  take  a  six  weeks  va 
cation,  the  matter  was  not  dropped.  After  some  discussion 
another  ordinance  was  signed  by  both  houses  on  the  14th: 
"Because  of  the  King's  absence  in  Scotland  and  the  time  of 
the  recess  draws  near  and  considering  the  late  troubles  in  the 
kingdom  that  are  not  yet  settled  ;  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
Popish  Recusants  have  always  had  and  still  have  and  do  prac 
tice  most  dangerous  and  pernicious  designs  against  the  church 
and  State,"2  throughout  England  and  Wales  they  were  to  be 
deprived  of  their  arms.  At  a  time  when  all  the  difficulties  of 
the  session  seemed  to  have  been  surmounted,  the  armies  to 
have  been  disbanded  and  the  kingdom  to  be  quiet,  Parliament 
wished  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure  by  anticipating  a  possi 
ble  Catholic  uprising.  The  Puritan  leaders  in  the  Lower  House 
felt,  too,  that  the  session  should  not  end  without  their  having 
done  something  for  religion.  The  previous  discussions  had 
shown  that  Episcopacy  could  not  be  abolished ;  now  only  the 


1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  268,  271,  279  ;  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  379,  380  :  C.  D.  S.  P., 
CCCCLXXXIII.,9i. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  261,  274,  278  ;  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  384. 

[170] 


35 

forms  of  service  were  to  be  altered.  On  September  first  Church 
wardens  were  ordered  to  remove  Communion  tables  from  the 
East  end  of  the  Church,  to  take  away  the  rails  and  to  level 
the  Chancel  as  they  were  before  the  late  innovations.  All 
crucifixes,  scandalous  pictures  of  any  one  or  more  persons  of 
the  Trinity,  and  all  images  of  the  Virgin  Mary  were  to  be  taken 
away  and  abolished  ;  and  all  tapers,  candlesticks  and  basons  to 
be  removed  from  the  Communion  table.  All  corporeal  bowing 
at  the  name  of  Jesus,  or  towards  the  East  end  of  the  Church, 
was  to  be  henceforth  foreborn.1  Thus  far  the  House  had  been 
unanimous,  but  on  the  question  of  the  alteration  of  the  Com 
mon  Prayer  there  was  "  a  very  hot  debate."  Mr.  Hyde  and 
others  spoke  very  much  in  opposition  to  the  motion,  desiring 
that  the  Common  Prayer  might  be  continued  as  it  was  without 
alteration  and  be  observed  with  reverence.2  On  September  6 
the  question  was  again  up,  and  the  party  of  Hyde  and  Falkland 
was  victorious,  for  the  addition  to  the  Common  Prayer  was 
dropped.3  Two  days  later  the  Lords  agreed  to  some  of  the  res 
olutions  of  the  Commons,  but  "  as  to  the  bowing  at  the  name 
of  Jesus  it  shall  not  be  enjoined  or  prohibited  to  any  man." 
Conservatism  was  in  full  swing  in  the  Upper  House,  for  on  the 
next  day  they  opposed  changes  of  any  kind,  voting  that  divine 
service  should  be  performed  "  as  it  is  appointed  by  the  Acts  of 
Parliament.  All  who  disturb  that  wholesome  order  shall  be 
punished  according  to  the  law."  The  resolution  was  ordered 
to  be  published,  from  which,  and  not  in  the  usual  way,  the 
Lower  House  was  to  learn  of  the  action  of  the  Upper/  The 
Commons,  however,  were  not  to  be  out  done,  for  they  voted  to 
publish  their  order  with  that  of  the  Lords  added,  and  with  the 
statement  that  it  passed  at  a  time  when  eleven  was  a  majority 
in  the  Upper  House.  It  was  hoped  that  when  the  Houses 
again  met  the  resolution  of  the  Commons  would  pass  in  the 


1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  278.  279. 

2  Rush.,  IV.,  385. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II. ,  280,  281. 

4  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  292,  295. 

[170 


36 

other  House.  In  the  meantime  the  intended  changes  should 
be  introduced  "  without  any  disturbance  of  the  worship  of  God 
or  the  peace  of  the  Kingdom."1  The  recess  began  with  a  Par 
liament  divided  against  itself.  Not  only  had  the  two  Houses 
taken  an  opposite  stand  on  a  question  that  was  sure  to  bring 
strife,  but  in  the  Lower  House,  where  above  all  unanimity  was 
necessary  if  the  Constitutional  reforms  were  to  become  perma 
nent,  the  lines  of  division  were  drawn  more  sharply  than  ever 
before.  Well  might  the  King  think,  if  he  could  quiet  the  oppo 
sition  in  Scotland,  that  he  would  yet  be  supreme  in  England. 

Charles  evidently  knew  the  part  he  had  to  play,  for  in  his 
address  to  the  Scotch  Parliament,  August  17th,  he  assured  the 
members  that  love  for  his  native  country  had  brought  him  to 
Scotland,  and  that  his  first  act  would  be  to  give  satisfaction  in 
all  civil  and  religious  matters.2  His  acts,  too,  conformed  to  his 
words,  for  he  took  such  a  lively  interest  in  worshiping  accord 
ing  to  the  forms  of  the  Scotch  church  that  Sir  Henry  Vane 
believed  that  "  by  the  next  spring  he  would  be  found  in  such  a 
posture  with  his  subjects,  that  he  would  be  useful  to  his  friends 
abroad  and  the  comfort  of  all  the  Reformed  Churches."3  Sid 
ney  Bere  wrote  from  Edinburgh  :  "  Yesterday  his  Majesty  wras 
again  at  the  great  hall  at  sermon,  where  the  bishops  were  not 
spared  but  such  downright  language  [used]*  as  would  a  year 
ago  [have]4  been  at  the  least  a  Star  Chamber  business  ;  imply 
ing  all  that  was  amiss  to  ill  counselors  ;  and  so  ingratiated  his 
Majesty  with  his  people  who  indeed  show  a  zeal  and  affection 
beyond  expression."5  Such  unanimity  was  not  long  to  last. 
Under  the  leadership  of  the  Duke  of  Argyle,  Parliament  pro 
posed  the  policy  which  Pym  had  some  months  earlier  formu 
lated  in  the  English  Commons — a  government  in  which  the 
highest  officers  of  the  Crown  would  be  chosen  by  Parliament.6 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  286. 

2  Rush.,  IV.,  382. 

3  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXYXIIL,  81. 

4  Not  in  the  manuscript  but  in  the  C.  D.  S.  P. 

5  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXXXIII.,  104. 

6  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXXXIII.,  96. 


37 

Through  Hamilton,  who  had  accompanied  the  King  to  Scotland, 
Argyle  secured  the  consent  of  the  King  to  such  a  program.  In 
the  future  he  would  choose  only  those  officers  who  were  ap 
proved  by  Parliament.  He  seemed  to  think,  however,  that  in 
some  mysterious  way  he  still  had  a  voice  in  the  choice  of  men, 
for  though  willing  to  give  Argyle  or  any  one  of  his  friends  the 
choice  between  the  treasurership  or  chancelorship,  he  expected 
to  dispose  of  the  others  as  he  wished.  His  candidate  was  Lord 
Morton,  an  opponent  to  Parliament  and  a  staunch  supporter  of 
the  King.  But  Parliament  exercised  its  newly  granted  privi 
lege  and  opposed  Morton  because  he  was  not  u  free  in  his  for 
tune  and  dependence,"1  and  Lord  Morton  withdrew  his  name. 
The  King  felt  himself  humiliated  and  the  nobility  was  angry. 
Lord  Almond,  a  hot  headed  Scotchman,  was  then  nominated 
for  the  treasurership  by  the  King.  Parliament  opposed  him  as 
much  as  they  had  opposed  Morton.  Almond  said  he  would  not 
"  quit  the  King's  honor  done  him,  as  long  as  he  had  any  blood 
in  his  veins,  for  any  man's  pleasure  whatsoever." 2  After  sev 
eral  days'  discussion,  in  which  party  feeling  ran  very  high,  the 
King  asked  Almond  also  to  withdraw  his  name.  It  was  no 
wonder  that  in  a  country  where  the  sword  had  long  been  the 
ultimate  arbiter  in  cases  of  dispute,  and  where  the  custom  had 
not  yet  wholly  died  out,  there  should  have  been  some  plan 
formed  to  dispose  of  Argyle  and  Hamilton.  At  any  rate  it  came 
to  their  ears  that  such  a  plan  was  to  be  executed  on  October  13 
by  the  Earl  of  Crawford,  Lord  Almond,  and  Colonel  Cochran. 
The  threatened  Lords  fled  to  the  country,  and  Parliament  began 
an  investigation  of  the  plot,3  of  which  the  King  seemed  to  have 
been  not  entirely  ignorant. 

The  committee  sent  by  the  English  Parliament  to  report 
the  conduct  of  the  King  had  followed  the  course  of  events  with 
much  suspense.  An  account  of  the  plot  against  Argyle  and 
Hamilton  was  immediately  sent  to  the  Committee  of  the  Com- 

1  Webb  to  Nicholas,  Sept.  21.     Nicholas  Papers,  I.,  48. 

2  Webb  to  Nicholas,  Sept.  27.     Nicholas  Papers,  1.,  51. 

3  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXXXIV.,  77. 

[1731 


38 

mons  which  had  been  appointed  to  sit  and  transact  business 
during  the  recess.  For  them  it  was  enough  to  know  that  there 
was  to  have  been  an  attempt  on  the  lives  of  the  Scotch  Parlia 
mentary  leaders,  that  the  leader  of  the  plot  was  a  Catholic, 
and  that  the  King  had  not  been  ignorant  of  the  design.  They 
at  once  concluded  that  "  there  might  be  some  correspondence 
with  the  Catholic  party  in  England,"  and  that  conviction  was 
so  strong  as  to  induce  them,  immediately  on  the  arrival  of  the 
information,  October  19,  to  cause  the  Mayor  of  London  to  place 
guards  at  different  points  in  the  city.1  When  Parliament  as 
sembled  on  the  next  day,  so  strong  was  the  conviction  that  de 
fensive  measures  must  be  taken  that  the  report  of  the  commit 
tee  appointed  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Lower  House  during 
the  adjournment  was  hurried  through  because  of  "the  great 
importance  of  the  business  first  to  be  considered  of  this  day 
touching  the  troubles  in  Scotland."2  A  committee  appointed 
to  devise  means  for  the  defense  of  the  Kingdom  reported  a  res 
olution  which  was  at  once  adopted  by  the  House.  "When 
there  was  a  design,  somewhat  of  the  same  nature,  in  the  King 
dom  to  seduce  the  King  away,  to  interrupt  the  Parliament 
here,  there  was  the  like  design  at  that  time  in  Scotland.  The 
principal  party  named  in  that  design  in  Scotland,  is  a  person 
suspected  to  be  popishly  affected ;  and  therefore  may  have  cor 
respondency  with  the  like  party  here.  It  hath  been  published 
here  lately  that  some  things  were  do  be  done  there  in  Scotland 
before  it  broke  out  here.  Therefore  we  may  suspect  some  cor 
respondency  here.  Upon  these  grounds  we  propound  that  a 
strong  guard  be  kept  in  the  city  of  Westminster  and  London, 
and  that  care  be  taken  in  the  future  for  the  defense  of  the 
whole  Kingdom."3  At  a  joint  session  on  the  next  day  the  Lords 
assented  to  the  resolutions  of  the  Commons,  and  Parliament 
determined  also  to  send  a  letter  to  its  Committee  in  Scotland.4 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  20,0. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  289. 

3  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  399. 

4  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  400. 

[174] 


39 

The  members  of  the  committee  were  to  be  informed  that  "  Par 
liament  holds  it  to  be  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  this 
Kingdom  that  the  Religion,  Liberty  and  Peace  of  Scotland  be 
preserved,  and  therefore  they  have  resolved  to  employ  their 
humble  and  faithful  advice  to  his  Majesty,  the  power  and  auth 
ority  of  Parliament  and  of  this  Kingdom  for  the  suppressing  of 
all  such  as  by  any  conspiracy,  practice  or  other  attempts  shall 
endeavor  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Scotland  and  to  infringe  the 
articles,"  and  the  committee  was  ordered  to  present  the  resolu 
tion  to  the  King.1 

Distant  as  was  the  scene  of  action  and  futile  as  the  plan 
had  been,  the  English  Parliament  thought  they  saw  in  the  con 
spiracy  of  a  few  discomfited  Scotchmen  a  danger  to  represent 
ative  government.  In  no  uncertain  way  had  the  Commons 
spoken  as  to  their  course  of  action  at  such  a  time.  The  Lower 
House  felt  itself  to  represent  the  people,  and  to  them  it  would 
appeal.  On  the  twenty-fifth  it  was  ordered  that  the  Declara 
tion  on  the  State  of  the  Kingdom  should  be  presented  to  the 
House  on  Friday  next,  the  twenty-ninth.2  At  the  appointed 
time  the  Remonstrance  was  evidently  not  ready,  for  there  was 
another  order  to  meet  the  next  day  and  to  bring  in  the  Declara 
tion  on  the  following  Monday.3  The  two  Remonstrances  of 
August  are  united  in  the  one  declaration  of  October  as  an  ex 
amination  of  the  text  will  show.  In  that  part  of  the  Remons 
trance  setting  forth  the  grievances  of  the  Kingdom  in  the  in 
terval  between  the  Short  Parliament  and  the  Long,  the  evils  in 
state  and  church  are  not  grouped  under  these  respective  heads  ; 
nor  do  the  paragraphs  on  the  two  subjects  succeed  each  other 
chronologically.  In  short  there  is  no  division  either  in  time  or 

1  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  400. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  298.     Mr.  Gardiner  first  introduced   the  Remonstrance 
on  October  29,  1641.     It  was  in  connection  with  the  insult  which  the  Commons  felt 
that  they  had  received  i-n  the  appointment  by  the   King  of  the  new  Bishops,  two  of 
whom  had  been  impeached  by  the  Commons  for  the  part  they  had  taken  in  drafting 
the  new  canons.     Gardiner's  History,  IX.,  41.     But  on  the  25th  it  was  resolved  that 
the  Remonstrance  should  be  presented  to  the  House.     Commons  Journal,  II.,  294. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  298. 

[1751 


40 

matter.  Paragraphs  seventy-nine  to  eighty-four  inclusive  are 
on  the  State,  eighty-three  and  eighty-four  treating  of  the  finan 
cial  embarrassment  of  the  government  and  the  attempt  through 
the  aldermen  to  force  a  loan  from  the  city  of  London.  Para 
graphs  eighty-five  to  ninety-four  are  given  exclusively  to  the 
Church.  Paragraph  ninety-five  treats  of  civil  affairs  again,  but 
it  is  surprising  that  it  is  the  financial  embarrassment  of  the 
government  and  again  a  compulsory  loan,  this  time  however 
from  the  officers  and  servants  of  the  King.  If  this  part  of  the 
Remonstrance  be  read,  omitting  paragraphs  eighty-five  to 
ninety-four,  on  religion,  there  is  no  break.  The  State  document 
appears  to  have  opened  in  the  midst  of  its  treatment  of  the 
financial  condition  and  admitted  a  statement  on  the  condition 
of  the  Church.1 

There  is  other  evidence  to  the  same  effect.  In  regard  to 
the  poll  money,  paragraph  one  hundred  and  eleven  of  the  Re 
monstrance  reads  :  "  Six  subsidies  have  been  granted  and  a  bill 
of  poll  money  which  if  it  be  duly  levied  may  equal  six  subsi 
dies  more,  in  all  six  hundred  thousand  pounds."  The  poll  bill 
"  may  equal  "  three  hundred  thousand  pounds.  The  statement 
"  if  it  be  duly  levied  "  shows  that  it  was  written  at  a  time  when 
there  was  some  question  whether  or  not  it  would  be  duly  lev 
ied  ;  and  the  words  "  may  equal  six  subsidies  more  "  show  also 
that  that  sum  was  expected  from  the  tax.  That  part  of  the 
Remonstrance  was  therefore  written  at  a  time  when  it  was 
clear  that  the  management  of  the  collection  was  poor,  when 
the  expectation  that  a  million 2  would  be  secured  had  been  re 
nounced,  but  when  the  consciousness  that  the  poll  tax  was  a 
financial  failure  had  not  yet  forced  itself  upon  the  House.  This 
time  is  found  to  be  coincident  with  that  of  the  agitation  of  the 
two  Remonstrances  during  the  August  crisis.  The  poll  tax  bill 
secured  the  signature  of  the  King  on  the  third  of  July  ;  it  pro 
vided  for  the  payment  of  the  tax  within  four  days  after  its  an 
nouncement.  At  first  the  money  came  in  rapidly,  and  it  ap- 


1  Rushworth,  IV.,  438. 

2  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLIL,  61,  72. 


[176] 


41 

peared  as  though  the  expectation  of  the  Parliament  was  to  be 
realized.  The  first  payments  received  came,  however,  from 
members  of  Parliament  and  citizens  of  London  and  vicinity, 
and  therefore  soon  ceased.1  Not  until  the  10th  were  measures 
taken  for  the  "  speedy  issuing  of  commissions  for  the  speedy 
raising  of  monies  by  the  poll  tax."2  The  result  was  not  what 
was  expected,  and  on  the  16th  the  House  ordered  the  members 
for  the  city  to  find  out  "  where  the  obstruction  is  that  the 
monies  are  not  paid  in  accordance  to  the  said  act.":  By  the 
twentieth  it  was  clear  that  payments  would  not  be  sufficiently 
rapid  to  discharge  the  army  before  August  10,  and  provision 
was  made  for  receiving  voluntary  loans  of  more  than  one  hun 
dred  pounds  to  be  repaid  from  the  poll  when  the  money  should 
come  in.4  On  July  23,  the  day  on  which  the  plan  for  a  Remon 
strance  again  appeared  in  the  Commons,  it  was  discovered  that 
all  the  commissions  had  not  been  issued,  a  negligence  attributed 
to  the  Mayor  of  London  and  his  officers.5  On  the  30th  Sir 
Arthur  Ingram,  a  member  of  Parliament,  having  been  granted 
permission  to  go  home,  was  asked  to  use  his  best  endeavors  to 
hasten  the  poll  money.  If  he  found  any  obstruction  in  the 
business  he  was  to  certify  the  same  to  the  House.6  On  August 
4  the  Commons  again  attributed  the  tardy  payment  to  the 
Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  London  and  gave  them  explicit  in 
structions  as  to  the  method  of  collection.7  A  writer  of  the  time 
in  a  letter  to  a  friend  observes  that  "  The  poll  money  comes  in 
cheerfully,  .  .  .  and  if  the  assessors  look  not  better  to  it  a 
writ  ad  -melt us  inquirendum  will  be  issued  out  of  Parliament 
against  them  ;  and  certainly  they  will  deserve  it,  for  they  are 
very  partial  in  most  places."8  On  the  llth  of  August  another 

1  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXHXIL,  19  ;  CCCCLXPXIL,  23. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  206. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  214. 

4  Commons  Journal,  II.,  217. 

5  Commons  Journal,  II.,  221,  224. 
5  Commons  Journal,  II.,  225,  230. 

7  Commons  Journal,  II.,  235. 

8  Thomas  Smith  to  Sir  John  Pennington,  Aug.  6,  1641  ;  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCLXXX- 
III,  19. 

[I77J 


42 

appeal  was  made  for  loans  to  be  repaid  when  the  poll  money 
should  come  in.1  On  the  14th  the  Remonstrances  were  men 
tioned  for  the  last  time  till  October  25.  The  words  "  if  it  be 
duly  levied  "  can  be  understood  only  on  the  supposition  that 
at  least  this  part  of  the  Remonstrance  was  written  at  this  time, 
not  two  months  later  when  the  pitiful  outcome  of  the  poll  tax 
was  known.  It  "  may  equal  "  three  hundred  thousand  pounds! 
The  total  income  of  the  poll  tax  to  July  29  was  £18,069.  July 
30  only  £900  came  in  ;  on  the  next  day  only  £377,  but  on 
August  4,  £2,400  was  reported.2  The  total  payment  to  August 
24  was  only  £54,064.3  By  this  time  even  it  was  clear  that  the 
£300,000  mark  would  not  be  reached.  In  November  such  a 
supposition  was  absurd.  Before  that  same  August  24,  £68,000 
had  been  borrowed,  for  which  poll  money  was  security ;  after 
that  date  there  is  no  evidence  either  that  any  more  poll  money 
was  paid  in  or  that  any  other  sums  were  borrowed.  On  Octo 
ber  29  the  Commons  resolved  to  take  measures  to  secure  funds 
to  pay  off  their  poll  money  debts,4  an  action  which  was  a  con 
fession  that  the  poll  tax  was  a  failure  and  was  admitted  to  be 
such  by  vote  of  the  Commons.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive 
that  at  the  same  time  they  would  say  that  £300,000  was  ex 
pected  from  that  source. 

The  committee  had  been  ordered  to  bring  in  the  Declara 
tion  on  the  first  of  November,  but  on  that  day  events  of  a  still 
graver  nature  engaged  the  attention  of  the  House.  News  had 
arrived  of  a  general  uprising  of  the  Catholics  in  Ireland  ;  Dub 
lin  had  only  been  saved  by  timely  warning,  though  elsewhere 
the  outbreak  had  been  successful.  The  King's  arsenal  contain 
ing  powrder  and  arms  had  been  captured.  Many  villages  had 
been  burned,  and  many  English  robbed.  It  was  affirmed  that 
all  English  Protestants  were  to  be  killed,  and  the  news  which 
had  arrived  seemed  to  justify  the  statement.5  The  Catholic 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  251. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  228,231,  232,237. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  269. 

4  Commons  Journal,  II.,  298. 

5  Rush.,  IV.,  397,  ff. 


43 

movement  in  Ireland,  following  so  closely  upon  the  plot  against 
the  Parliamentary  leaders  in  Scotland,  convinced  a  majority 
in  the  Commons  that  a  relentless  war  against  Protestantism 
was  to  be  waged  by  the  united  Catholicism  of  the  three  King 
doms.  In  order  to  meet  the  danger  the  Commons  voted  to  re 
quest  the  Lords  to  unite  with  them  in  asking  a  loan  of  fifty 
thousand  pounds  from  the  city  of  London,  in  sending  men  and 
arms  to  Ireland,  in  "securing  the  persons  of  Papists  of  quality 
in  the  several  counties  of  the  Kingdom,"  in  dissolving  the 
House  of  Capuchins  and  in  commanding  all  strangers  not  of 
the  protestant  religion  to  deliver  in  tickets  of  their  names  and 
an  account  of  their  stay  in  London  or  else  to  depart  from  the 
Kingdom.1  The  Lords  did  not  conceive  the  danger  so  great 
but  in  a  few  days  agreed  to  the  propositions  of  the  Lower 
House.2 

If  the  question  of  a  Remonstrance  had  come  up  as  the  re 
sult  of  the  news  from  Scotland,  how  much  more  necessary  was 
it  after  the  Irish  Rebellion  !  On  the  8th  of  November  the  Dec 
laration  was  at  last  read  in  the  Commons,3  and  the  next  few 
days  were  spent  in  the  discussion  and  amendment  of  some  fifty 
paragraphs.4  But  on  the  llth  the  further  consideration  was 
interrupted,  for  more  news  had  been  received  from  Ireland. 
The  Lords  Justices  wrote  that  the  rebellion  had  increased  im 
mensely,  saying  that  three  hundred  thousand  were  now  under 
arms.  "  Five  counties  in  the  province  of  Ulster  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  rebels.  Thousands  had  been  exposed  to  want  and 
beggary.  Many  were  prisoners  ;  many  had  been  most  barbar 
ously  slain.  The  purpose  was  to  exterminate  the  English  and 
Protestants  and  not  to  lay  down  arms  till  the  Romish  Religion 
was  established,  the  government  settled  into  the  hands  of  the 
natives  and  the  Irish  restored  to  the  lands  of  their  supposed 
ancestors." 5  In  consequence  of  this  news  the  Commons  devoted 

1  Commons  Journal,  II.,  30x3. 

2  Lords  Journal,  IV.,  426,  429. 

3  Commons  Journal,  II.,  398. 

4  Commons  Journal,  II.,  309,  311. 

5  Rush.,  IV.,  .     Commons  Journal,    II.,  311. 

[179] 


44 

the  llth  and  the  two  days  following  exclusively  to  providing 
for  the  needs  of  Ireland.  But  on  Monday,  the  15th,  the  Declar 
ation  was  once  more  under  discussion,  paragraph  one  hundred 
and  ninety,  which  attributed  the  origin  of  the  Sectaries  to  the 
idolatry  and  Popish  ceremonies  introduced  into  the  church  by 
the  command  of  the  Bishops,  being  the  subject  of  a  long  de 
bate.  The  opposition  by  the  Episcopalians  was  very  great. 

On  the  same  day  the  Commons  received,  as  they  thought, 
not  only  additional  proof  of  a  Catholic  Union,  but  also  evi 
dence  that  a  blow  was  to  be  struck  in  England.  While  the 
House  was  in  the  midst  of  discussion  a  tailor  demanded  to  be 
heard.  On  the  morning  of  the  same  day,  he  said,  he  had  been 
walking  in  the  fields  near  London  and  sitting  down  on  one 
side  of  a  high  bank  to  rest,  he  heard  two  men  talking  on  the 
other  side.  One  told  of  a  plot  to  kill  one  hundred  and  eight  of 
both  Houses  of  Parliament  by  an  equal  number  of  Catholics. 
The  plan  was  to  be  executed  in  the  evening  when  the  mem 
bers  were  coming  from  Parliament.  The  tailor  while  trying  to 
get  away  was  discovered  by  the  speaker  who  followed,  wounded 
him  and  left  him  for  dead,  but  having  revived  he  was  sent  to 
the  Lords  where  he  told  his  story.1  Whether  true  or  false  the 
effect  was  the  same  ;  measures  being  at  once  taken  for  antici 
pating  the  designs  of  the  Catholics  and  for  providing  for  the 
safety  of  the  Kingdom. 

On  the  16th  the  Declaration  was  again  discussed,  and  some 
few  concessions  were  made  to  the  Episcopalians.2  The  17th 
and  18th  were  spent  in  other  matters,  the  17th  in  the  investi 
gation  of  another  army  plot  in  which  the  guilt  of  the  King  was 
evident,  the  18th  in  preparing  to  subdue  the  rebellion  in  Ire 
land.  On  the  19th  some  additional  changes  were  made  in  the 
Declaration,  and  it  was  ordered  to  be  brought  in  engrossed  on 
the  following  morning.3  On  Monday,  the  22nd  was  the  final 
debate  which  began  early  and  continued  late.  After  some 

1  C.  D.  S.  P.,  CCCCLXXXV.,  93.     Lords  Journal,  IV.,  439. 

2  Commons  Journal,  II.,  317. 

3  Ibid.  318,  319,320. 

[180] 


45 

minor  changes  the  Remonstrance  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-nine  to  one  hundred  and  forty-eight.  Had 
it  not  been  for  Hampden's  presence  of  mind  an  attempt  by  the 
minority  to  protest  would  probably  have  led  to  an  appeal  to 
arms.  On  the  following  Wednesday  the  committee  that  drew 
up  the  Remonstrance  was  ordered  to  frame  a  petition  to  ac 
company  it,  and  on  the  27th  that  was  presented  and  accepted. 
On  December  1st  the  whole  was  presented  to  the  King,  and 
soon  after  it  was  ordered  to  be  printed  and  was  then  given  to 
the  public.1 

The  events  whose  history  this  essay  has  traced  show  clearly 
that  the  opinion  so  long  held  by  historians  that  Mr.  Pym  was 
the  sole  author  of  the  Grand  Remonstrance,  is  a  mistaken  one. 
The  document  really  consisted  of  two  parts,  written  by  separ 
ate  committees.  Mr.  Fiennes  and  Sir  Henry  Vane  prepared 
that  part  which  related  to  the  affairs  of  the  Church ;  Messrs. 
Pym,  Hampderi,  Strode,  and  Culpepper  were  jointly  responsible 
for  that  which  related  to  political  affairs. 


I  Commons  Journal,  II.,  321,322,324,326,330,334. 

[ibi] 


Untoemtp  of 


Vol.  I  APRIL,  1903  No.  5 


The  Artificial  Method  for  Determining  the  Ease 
and  the  Rapidity  of  the  Digestion  of  Meats 


By 


HARRY  SANDS  CRINDLEY,  Sc.  D., 

and 
TIMOTHY  MOJONNIER,  M.  S. 


Selrbana 


THE    ARTIFICIAL    METHOD    FOR    DETERMINING 

THE  EASE    AND    RAPIDITY   OF  THE 

DIGESTION  OF  MEATS* 


BY  H.  S.  GRINDLEY  AND  TIMOTHY  MOJONNIER. 


During  the  course  of  an  extended  investigation  upon  the 
nutritive  value  of  raw  and  cooked  meats,  which  the  authors  are 
making  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  Office  of  Experiment  Station,  it  became  necessary 
to  study  the  digestibility  of  meats  by  the  artificial  method. 
Since  A.  Sttitzer  (  Journal  fur  Landwirthschaft,  28  ;  J95,  435  ) 
in  1880,  proposed  his  method  for  determining  the  digestibility 
of  the  proteids  in  foods,  considerable  work  has  been  done  in  im 
proving  the  method  and  in  enlarging  its  utility.  The  investi 
gations  of  Dr.  Gustav  Kuhn,  which  were  compiled  and  published 
by  Dr.  0.  Kellner  (  Die  Landwirthschaftlichen  Versuchs-Station- 
en  44 )  in  1894,  show  conclusively  that  it  is  now  possible  to 
make  artificial  digestion  experiments  upon  foods,  which  give 
results  agreeing  well  with  those  made  by  the  natural  di 
gestion  experiments  upon  lower  animals.  However,  the  re 
sults  obtained  by  the  methods  for  artificial  digestion  which  are 
now  used,  represent  the  total  digestibility  of  the  food  and  show 
nothing,  or  at  most  very  little  regarding  the  ease  and  the  rapid 
ity  of  the  digestion. 

This  fact  was  forcibly  called  to  our  attention  in  the  course 
of  an  investigation  upon  the  influence  of  the  cooking  of  meats 

*Contributions  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 

185 


upon  the  digestibility  of  the  same.  In  the  first  experiments  in 
the  investigation  the  digestibility  of  the  protein  of  raw  meat 
and  the  same  meat  cooked  by  broiling,  frying  and  boiling,  was 
determined  by  the  usual  method  employed  in  the  artificial  di 
gestion  experiments  except  that  the  fresh  substance  was  used 
instead  of  the  air-dried  material.  That  is  to  say,  fresh  samples 
of  the  raw  meat  or  the  same  meat  cooked  as  indicated  in  the 
table  were  treated  for  24  hours  at  a  temperature  of  39  to  40  de 
grees  with  100  cc.  of  a  pepsin  solution  made  by  dissolving  1.25 
grams  of  pepsin  in  one  litre  of  0.33  per  cent  hydrochloric  acid. 
The  results  given  in  Table  I,  represent  the  average  of  two  or 
more  well  agreeing  duplicate  determinations  and  they  are  rep 
resentative  results  taken  from  a  large  number  of  experiments, 
the  data  of  which  have  not  as  yet  been  published. 

TABLE  I 

Results  obtained  by  the  action  of  acid  pepsin  solution  for 
twenty-four  hours  upon  meats. 


1 
K"inH     rif    TYTpaf- 

Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Beef,  round,  animal  2>£ 
years  old. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portion 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

1  202 

Raw  beef,  round     

Grams. 
o8di 

Grams. 
0028 

Grams. 
0813 

06  67 

1203 

Pan-broiled                               .    . 

O746 

002^ 

O72I 

yu.u/ 

06  6s 

1  204. 

Fried  in  hot  lard 

0698 

OO2  4. 

.U/^l 

OO74 

9u.u£ 
96   56 

1  20? 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85° 

0618 

OO2  7 

OCnr 

oc  6^ 

•^2 
1206 

I2IO 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  
Beef,  round,  animal  3  years  old. 
Raw  beef,  round  

.0764 
08  to 

.0027 
0028 

•0737 
08^1 

yz    z 

96.46 

06  74 

I2TC 

Pan-broiled 

0870 

0040 

0810 

QC     /I  r 

1^13 
I2IQ 

Fried  in  hot  lard   

0867 

0047 

0820 

SO  •'ty 

O4    ^8 

I2II 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°  

0862 

OO2Q 

o8n 

06  6^ 

1212 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  

1180 

ooc;6 

I  I-JQ 

nC    20 

I2^C 

Beef,    round,    animal     about    3 
years  old. 
Raw  beef    round 

0848 

OO27 

0821 

96  82 

I2l8 

Pan-broiled                      

06  1  ^ 

OO2O 

QC.QT. 

06   72 

I24.I 

Fried  in  hot  lard          .         .... 

•wij 

0062 

OO22 

OO4O 

O7   71 

1242 
124^ 

Boiled  one  hour  at  80-85°  
Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  

.1026 
.07^ 

.0028 
OO24 

.0998 
07^1 

97.27 
06   82 

[186] 


It  is  plainly  evident  from  the  results  here  reported  that 
there  is  no  difference  between  the  digestibility  of  raw  and 
cooked  meats.  That  is  to  say,  there  is  practically  no  difference 
between  the  amount  of  nitrogenous  matter  in  raw  and  cooked 
meats  that  is  made  soluble  by  the  action  of  the  acid  pepsin  so 
lution  of  the  above  strength  when  allowed  to  act  for  the 
time  mentioned.  In  other  words,  the  total  digestibility  of  raw 
and  cooked  meats  in  acid  pepsin  solution  of  the  strength  used, 
acting  for  twenty-four  hours,  is  the  same.  It  is  commonly  be 
lieved  that  cooked  meat  is  less  digestible  than  raw  meat.  At 
present  there  is  much  confusion  regarding  the  meaning  of  the 
term  digestibility  of  foods.  Professor  W.  0.  Atwater  in  the 
bulletins  from  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  office  of 
Experiment  Stations,  has  called  attention  to  the  looseness  with 
which  this  term  is  used.  In  this  article  when  the  term  diges 
tibility  alone  is  used  we  mean  the  total  amount  of  nitrog.en- 
ous  food  which  becomes  soluble  by  natural  or  artificial  'diges 
tion  without  regard  to  time  required  or  the  ease  or  rapidity  of 
the  solution  during  the  process. 

The  results  obtained  \u  these  experiments  do  not  agree 
with  the  common  opinion  regarding  the  relative  digestibility 
of  cooked  and  rawT  meats,  nor  do  they  agree  with  the  results 
obtained  by  other  investigators.  Ernest  Jessen  (Zeit.  fur  Bio- 
logie,  new  series,  1,  p.  129)  in  1883,  found  cooked  meats  to  be 
less  digestible  than  raw  meats.  He  proceeded  as  follows  in 
making  his  experiments.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  grams  of 
beef  from  a  steer  one  and  one-half  years  old  were  freed  as  com 
pletely  as  possible  from  sinew,  fat,  gristle  and  bone.  Portions 
of  this  sample  were  "half  boiled,  well  boiled,  half  roasted  and 
well  roasted.  In  each  case,  25  gram  portions  of  the  air-dried 
meats,  cooked  as  indicated  above  were  treated  with  400  cc.  of 
the  acid  pepsin  solution  containing  in  some  cases  1  gram  and  in 
others  2  grams  of  pepsin  solution  in  one  litre  of  pure  hyrdochlo- 
ric  acid  of  either  0.1  per  cent,  or  0.2  per  cent,  strength.  The 
digestion  was  continued  for  24  hours  at  a  temperature  of  37° 
with  frequent  stirring.  After  the  digestion  had  continued  for 

[187] 


the  time  indicated  the  insoluble  residue  was  removed  by  filtra 
tion,  dried  at  100-110  degrees  for  two  to  five  hours  and  weighed 
Jessen  obtained  the  results  given  in  the  following  table. 

TABLE  II 

Results  obtained  by  Jessen  by  digesting  air-dried  beef  with 
acid  pepsin  for  twenty-four  hours. 


Kind  of  Meat. 

Residue 
undigested. 

Coefficient 
of  digestibility. 

25  grams  of  raw  beef  air-dried 

Grams. 
•5  67 

77.32 

25  grams  of  half-boiled  beef,  air-dried  

9-49 

62.02 

25  grams  of  well-boiled  beef  air-dried 

17.  QC 

28.20 

25  grams  of  half-roasted  beef,  air  dried  
25  grams  of  well  roasted  beef  air-dried 

9.76 
17.07 

60.96 
31.72 

It  will  be  seen  upon  comparing  these  results  with  those 
obtained  in  our  experiments,  Table  I,  that  there  is  a  great  dif 
ference  in  the  results  from  the  two  investigations.  The  only 
reason  wrhich  we  can  suggest  for  this  great  variation  in  results, 
is  the  difference  in  methods  used.  Jessen 's  acid  pepsin  solution 
did  not  differ  materially  in  strength  from  that  used  in  our  ex 
periments  but  the  amount  of  dry  substance  in  the  sample  of 
meat  used  per  100  cc.  of  acid  pepsin  solution  wras  much  greater 
than  that  in  our  work.  For  100  cc.  of  acid  pepsin  solution  Jessen 
took  from  5.5  grams  to  6.5  grams  of  dry  substance ;  in  our  ex 
periments  the  amount  ranged  from  0.8  to  1.2  grams.  This  dif 
ference  in  procedure  it  seems  to  us  is  quite  probably  the  cause 
of  the  great  difference  found  in  the  two  investigations.  It  has 
been  proved  in  this  laboratory,  as  will  be  shown  later  in  this 
paper,  that  the  coagulated  proteids  of  meat  are  not  as  easily 
and  rapidly  digested,  as  those  which  have  not  been  coagulated. 
It  is  probable  that  the  action  of  the  pepsin  in  Jessen's  experi 
ments,  in  which  so  much  meat  was  taken  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  acid  pepsin  used,  was  so  retarded  on  account  of  the 
accumulation  of  the  products  formed,  that  in  the  case  of 
cooked  meats  where  the  proteids  have  been  coagulated,  the  di 
gestive  action  of  the  pepsin  solution  had  not  been  complete  or 

[i  88] 


in  other  words  the  action  had  not  continued  long  enough  to 
effect  the  maximum  change.  That  being  the  case  the  experi 
ments  of  Jessen  proved  that  cooked  meats  are  not  as  easily  and 
rapidly  digested  as  raw  meats  but  they  did  not  prove  that  the 
total  digestibility  of  cooked  meats  is  less  than  that  of  raw  meats. 
This  is  a  distinction  which  it  seems  to  us  should  be  made. 
Further,  it  is  also  probable  that  Jessen's  insoluble  residue,  after 
digestion,  contained  considerable  fat  which  would,  by  his 
method,  make  the  digestibility  of  the  protein  matter  appear  less. 

R.  H.  Chittenden  and  Geo.  W.  Cummins  (American  Chem 
ical  Journal,  6,  p.  331)  in  1884,  also  found  cooked  meats  to  be 
less  digestible  than  raw  meats.  They  carried  out  their  experi 
ments  as  follows:—  In  each  case  20  grams  of  meat  either  raw 
or  cooked  in  a  steam  bath  after  freeing  it  as  completely  as  pos 
sible  from  sinew,  fat,  skin  and  bone  was  treated  in  a  beaker 
with  200  cc.  of  the  gastric  juice  containing  5  grams  of  pepsin 
in  1000  cc.  of  pure  hydrochloric  acid  of  exactly  0.2  per  cent 
strength.  The  digestion  was  continued  for  22  hours  at  a  tem 
perature  of  38-40  degrees  Centigrade,  with  occasional  stirring. 
After  the  pepsin  solution  had  been  allowed  to  act  for  the  time 
mentioned,  the  digested  mixture  was  cooled  to  20  degrees  and 
then  diluted  to  250  cc.  After  a  thorough  mixing,  the  solution 
was  filtered  through  a  dry  filter  and  50  cc.  of  the  clear  filtrate 
was  evaporated  to  dryness  in  a  weighed  dish  after  the  addition 
of  5  cc.  of  a  standard  solution  of  sodium  carbonate  of  such  strength 
as  to  exactly  neutralize  the  acid  present.  The  residue  was  then 
dried  to  constant  weight  at  110°C.  Control  experiments  were 
also  run  upon  the  acid  pepsin  solution  alone.  The  residue  ob 
tained  from  the  blank  experiment  was  subtracted  from  the  weight 
of  the  residue  left  by  the  evaporation  of  the  50  cc.  of  the  digested 
mixture.  The  number  thus  obtained  was  multiplied  by  five, 
which  gave  the  amount  of  matter  (peptones  and  intermediate 
products  together  with  some  salts),  dissolved  from  20  grams  of 
meat. 

Chittenden  and  Cummins  made  only  a  few  experiments  to 
show  the  difference  in  digestibility  between  raw  and  cooked 

[189] 


8 

meats.  In  one  experiment  with  beef  they  found  that  the 
digestibility  of  raw  beef  as  compared  with  cooked  beef  (steamed) 
was  as  100 :  94.85,  while  in  a  second  experiment  this  ratio  was 
100 :  70.24.  These  results  do  not  agree,  and  so  far  as  we  are 
able  to  find,  they  are  the  only  two  experiments  published  by 
these  authors  regarding  the  relative  digestibility  of  raw  and 
cooked  beef.  They  also  report  a  similar  experiment  with  blue 
fish.  In  this  case  they  found  that  the  digestibility  of  the  raw 
blue  fish  as  compared  with  the  same  cooked  (steamed)  was  as 
100:  95.39.  With  one  exception  the  results  of  Chittenden  and 
Cummins  do  not  differ  nearly  as  much  from  our  results  as  do 
those  of  Jessen.  For  this  reason,  and  also  because  Chittenden 
and  Cummins  give  so  few  results,  it  is  perhaps  not  necessary 
to  attempt  to  explain  or  to  account  for  the  differences  between 
their  results  and  our  own.  However  they  made  one  experi 
ment  which  supports  our  contention  that  in  Jessen's  method 
too  large  quantities  of  the  meat  were  used  per  100  cc.  of  the 
acid  pepsin  solution.  In  order  to  ascertain  the  quantity  of 
flesh  best  adapted  to  200  cc.  of  their  standard  pepsin  solution 
Chittenden  and  Cummins  made  three  digestions  using  in  each 
case  different  quantities  of  cooked  sea  bass.  They  obtained 
the  following  results:— 

Amount  digested  (cal.  to  20  grams).    -From  20  From  30  From  40 

grams.  grams.  grams. 

3-3995  3-2325  2.5200 

Relative  proportion         100.00              95.08  74.12 

In  this  experiment  increasing  the  amount  of  material  plain 
ly  diminishes  the  amount  of  digestive  action  that  takes  place 
during  the  same  length  of  time.  Now,  for  100  cc.  of  acid  pep 
sin  solution  Jessen  took  from  5.5  grams  to  6.5  grams,  Chitten 
den  and  Cummins  from  3.5  to  4.5  grams  probably,  and  the 
writers  took  from  .8  to  1.2  grams  of  dry  substance.  As  ex 
plained  above  we  believe  this  difference  in  the  method  accounts 
for  the  low  results  which  Jessen.  and  Chittenden  and  Cummins 
obtained.  Further  it  seems  to  us  that  the  experiments  of  these 
investigators  go  to  show  that  cooked  meats  are  not  so  easily 

[190] 


and  rapidly  digested  as  raw  meats,  but  that  they  do  not  show 
the  total  digestibility  of  cooked  meats  to  be  less  than  that  of 
rawr  meats.  Further  investigations  on  this  question  are  now 
being  made  in  this  laboratory. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  method  of  artificial 
digestion  as  now  used,  shows  no  difference  in  the  total  digesti 
bility  of  the  protein  of  raw  and  cooked  meats,  there  may  how 
ever  be  a  difference  in  the  ease  and  the  rapidity  of  the  digestion 
of  the  protein  of  raw  and  cooked  meats.  It  was  thought  that  it 
might  be  possible  to  determine  this  difference  if  there  be  any, 
by  using  a  solution  of  pepsin  of  the  above  strength  and  allowing 
the  solution  to  act  for  shorter  periods  of  time,  that  is,  for  one, 
two,  three  or  four  hours.  So  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  find 
there  has  been  no  systematic  investigation  having  for  its  object 
the  adaptation  of  Stutzer's  method  of  artificial  digestion  to  the 
determination  of  the  relative  ease  and  of  the  rapidity  of  the  di 
gestion  of  foods.  As  it  seemed  quite  essential  to  our  investiga 
tions  to  have  a  method  for  determining  the  ease  and  the  rapid 
ity  of  the  digestion  of  raw  and  cooked  meats  we  undertook  to 
modify  the  ordinary  method  of  artificial  digestion  so  that  it  could 
be  used  for  this  purpose.  Since  it  has  been  found  that  it  requires 
from  24  to  25  hours  to  filter  the  digested  solution  by  the 
method  that  seems  best  at  present,  it  was  necessary  in  the  first 
place  to  find  some  way  of  stopping  the  action  of  the  acid  pep 
sin  solution  after  it  had  acted  for  the  desired  time. 

At  first  an  attempt  was  made  to  attain  this  end  by  lower- 
ering  the  temperature  of  the  digested  solution  to  from  4  to  5 
degrees  Centigrade  after  the  action  had  been  continued  for  the 
desired  time.  The  results  of  these  experiments  are  shown  in 
Tables  III,  IV  and  V. 


[191] 


10 


TABLE  III 

Digestibility  of  air-dried  samples  of  meats  in  artificial  pepsin  solution  acting 
for  twenty-four  hours  at  a  temperature  of  38  to  40  degrees. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

Indigest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

11073 
iio7b 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  
Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  
Average 

Grams. 
.1237 
•1325 

Grams. 

.0024 
.0025 

Grams. 

.1213 
.1300 

98.06 
98.11 
98.08 

iu6a 
iii6b 

Beef,  round,  boiled,  air-dried.  .  . 
Beef,  round,  boiled,  air-dried.  .  . 
Average 

.1203 
.I432 

.0029 
.0035 

.1174 
•1397 

97-59 
97.56 
O7    ^7 

iiiga 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  

•  I2Q4 

.00^0 

1261 

o7  68 

nigb 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried 

n86 

00^2 

i  ^d. 

O7   60 

Average 

•  1  J54- 

o7  68 

TABLE  IV 

Digestibility  of  air-dried  samples  of  meats  in  artificial  pepsin  solution  acting 
for  twejity-ft  ur  hours  at  a  temperature  of  22  to  26  degrees. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

11073 
iio7b 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  
Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  
Average 

Grams. 

.1219 
.1206 

Grams. 

.0054 
.0053 

Grams. 
.1165 
•II53 

95-57 
95.61 

OC    CQ 

ni6a 
iii6b 

Beef,  round,  boiled,  air-dried.  .  . 
Beef,  round,  boiled,  air-dried.  .  . 
Average 

.1247 
.1282 

.0037 
.0046 

.  I2IO 
.1236 

97-03 
96.41 
06  72 

11193 
iiigb 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  
Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  
Average 

.1182 
.1196 

.0055 
.0057 

.1127 
•1139 

95-35 
95-23 

Q1?   20 

[192] 


11 


TABLE  V 

Digestibility  of  air-dried  samples  of  meats  in  artificial  pepsin  solution  acting 
for  a  period  of  twenty-four  hours  at  a  temperature  of  4  to  5  degrees. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

Indigest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

11073 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried 

Grams. 

HCC 

Grams. 
0108 

Grams. 

IO17 

oo  6? 

iioyb 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried 

1244 

oioi 

I  JOT 

91  08 

Average 

90  86 

iu6a 
ni6b 

Beef,  round,  boiled,  air-dried.  .  . 
Beef,  round,  boiled,  air-dried.  .  . 
Average 

.  1290 

.1379 

.0098 
.0126 

.1192 
•1253 

92.40 
90.86 
oi  6^ 

ii  ipa 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  

.  1202 

OOQ2 

1  200 

92  88 

ii  igb 

Beef,  round,  raw,  air-dried  

.  1244. 

008; 

1  1  Co 

Q-3     17 

Average 

Q-l     O? 

The  result  of  the  above  experiments  demonstrate  plainly 
that  the  action  of  the  pepsin  solution  of  the  strength  used  in 
this  study  was  as  complete,  or  nearly  so,  at  the  end  of  24  hours 
when  the  temperature  was  only  22  to  24  degrees  as  it  was  when 
the  temperature  was  maintained  at  38  to  42  degrees.  Further, 
even  at  a  temperature  of  4  to  5  degrees  the  action  was  almost 
as  complete  as  in  the  other  two  cases.  It  is  evident  that  by 
merely  lowering  the  temperature  to  the  zero  point,  we  could 
not  stop  the  action  of  the  pepsin  sufficiently  to  answer  our  pur 
pose. 

In  the  next  place  an  effort  was  made  to  use  formalin  for  the 
purpose  of  stopping  the  action  of  the  acid  pepsin  upon  meats. 
In  order  to  do  this  the  following  experiments  were  made. 
Samples  of  meat  were  weighed  into  the  digesting  flasks  and 
100  cc.  of  the  regular  pepsin  solution  containing  10  cc.  of  for 
malin  (40  per  cent,  solution)  was  added  to  each  of  the  flasks 
containing  the  meat.  The  flasks  and  their  contents  were  kept 
at  the  room  temperature  for  24  hours  and  then  filtered.  The 
nitrogen  in  the  undigested  residue  was  then  determined. 
The  results  of  this  experiment  are  shown  in  Table  VI. 


[193] 


12 


TABLE  VI 

Action  of  formalin  upon  the  activity  of  acid  pepsin   solution.     The  samples  of  meat 

were  digested  for  twenty-four  hours  with  100  cc.  of  pepsin  solution 

containing  locc.  of  formalin  (40  per  cent,  solution). 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

Indigest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

11073 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  .  .  . 

Grams. 
IIS; 

Grams. 
0661 

Grams. 

OC21 

44    12 

iioyb 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  .... 

124.0 

O7OO 

OHIO 

AT.     CC 

Average 

43  88 

Iii6a 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.  I4m 

0062 

04.01 

i^  .70 

ii  [6b 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.  I2OC, 

0784 

0421 

•24.    QA 

Average 

T.A     77 

11193 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  

•  H44 

.osic. 

.0600 

C.2   21 

iiigb 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  

1171 

•^JJO 

.062? 

occs 

J-^-^J 
4O  Q4 

Average 

40.  C.Q 

i  I2oa 

Beef  boiled    air-dried 

I  I2g 

0617 

0512 

4.C.    -jc 

I  I2Ob 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.  114=1 

.0694 

.occi 

44.26 

Average 

44.8l 

i  i^oa 

Beef  raw   air-dried 

I44Q 

0800 



occo 

t<+  •"» 

07   06 

-  j«« 

i  I3ob 

Beef  raw  air-dried 

I4^O 

0908 

OC.4.2 

37  38 

Average 

•  ^4^ 

j/  •  ju 
17  O7 

11313 
ii3ib 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried    
Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  
Average 

.1202 
.1358 

.0719 
.0820 

.0483 
.0538 

J/  «W 

40.  18 
39.62 

-30     QO 

Average  of  the  averages  

41  .70 

From  the  results  given  in  the  above  table,  it  is  obvious 
that  formalin  decreases  the  action  of  the  acid  pepsin  solution 
to  a  considerable  extent.  Referring  to  Table  IV  which  gives 
the  results  of  the  acid  pepsin  solution  alone  when  allowed  to 
act  at  room  temperature  for  24  hours,  it  will  be  observed  that 
the  formalin  prevented  approximately  55  per  cent  of  the  pro- 
teid  from  being  dissolved.  It  was  also  found  that  formalin 
formed  no  precipitate  with  the  peptones  or  the  intermediate 
products  of  the  action  of  pepsin  digestion.  From  these  facts 
it  seems  probable  that  formalin  may  be  of  considerable  value 
in  checking  the  action  of  the  pepsin  solution  and  thus  in  aiding 
the  application  of  the  method  of  artificial  digestion  to  the  de 
termination  of  the  ease  and  the  rapidity  of  the  digestion  of 
foods. 

[194] 


13 

Tn  this  connection  it  seemed  desirable  to  determine  how 
much  solvent  action  dilute  hydrochloric  acid  alone,  of  the 
strength  used  in  preparing  the  acid  pepsin  solution,  would  have 
upon  meats.  Samples  of  the  same  meats  as  those  used  in  the 
experiment  described  immediately  above  were  treated  with  100 
cc.  of  hydrochloric  acid  (.33  per  cent.),  for  24  hours  at  the  tem 
perature  of  the  room.  The  results  of  this  experiment  are  given 
in  the  following  Table  VII. 


TABLE  VII 

Action  of  dilute  hydrochloric  acid  upon  meats.     The  samples  were  digested 

vvitli  100  cc.  of  .33  per  cent  hydrochloric  acid  for  twenty-four 

hours.     No  pepsin  being  used. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

Indigest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

i  io7a 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  

Grams. 
•  13°2 

Grams. 
1  002 

Grams. 
.0300 

23.04 

i  ioyb 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  

.1366 

.  1041 

.0^21; 

23.80 

Average 

23.42 

i  n6a 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.1318 

.1198 

.0120 

9.  10 

Hi6b 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.  I2QQ 

.  1184 

.OIK 

8.8S 

Average 

8.98 

i  iiga 

Beef,  raw  air-dried 

1288 

1046 

O242 

18  70 

1  1  1  9b 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried 

I  I  ^2 

OQ77 

02  1  £ 

18  66 

Average 

18  73 

U2oa 

I  I2Ob 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  
Beef,  boiled,  air  dried 

.1212 
I  I7Q 

.1062 
1O2S 

.0150 
0146 

12.38 
12.38 

Average 

12.38 

i  I3oa 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  

I  "}^ 

1177 

.OK6 

ii  .70 

H3ob 

Beef,  raw,  air-dried  

.  m8 

1180 

.0108 

12.46 

Average 

12.08 

ii3ia 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.  124; 

107; 

.0170 

13.65 

J  , 
i  I3ib 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.1228 

.  io=;2 

.0176 

14.33 

Average 

13.99 

ii48a 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  

.  1  1  1Q 

.  1019 

.0120 

10.54 

ii48b 

Beef,  boiled,  air-dried  
Average 

.1201 

.1075 

.0126 

10.49 
10.  52 

Average  of  the  averages 

14.30 

It  is  evident  that  dilute  hydrochloric  acid,  alone,  has  con 
siderable  solvent  action  upon  the  nitrogenous  constituents  of 
meats.  From  the  average  of  the  results  in  Tables  VI  and  VII 

[195] 


14 

it  will  be  seen  that  the  acid  pepsin  solution  even  in  the  pres 
ence  of  formalin  dissolved  27.40  per  cent  more  of  the  protein 
in  the  meat  than  did  the  hydrochloric  acid  alone. 

It  was  thought  probable  that  the  most  easily  digestible 
portions  of  the  meat  would  be  dissolved  first,  when  treated 
with  pepsin.  Furthermore  it  seemed  likely  that  if  formalin 
were  added  after  the  action  of  the  pepsin  solution  had  gone  on 
for  one  hour  or  more,  there  would  be  but  little  if  any  further 
action  of  the  pepsin  solution  during  the  time  required  for  filter 
ing.  In  order  to  test  the  above  supposition  the  following  ex 
periments  were  made.  Weighed  quantities  of  meat  were  treat 
ed  with  the  acid  pepsin  solution  for  exactly  one  hour  and  then 
10  cc.  of  formalin  was  immediately  added  and  the  solutions 
were  then  filtered  as  rapidly  as  possible.  At  the  same  time 
weighed  quantities  of  the  same  meats  were  treated  with  the 
pepsin  solution  and  the  formalin  exactly  as  above,  and  the  solu 
tions  allowed  to  stand  23  hours  and  then  filtered.  The  results 
of  these  tests  are  given  in  the  following  Tables  VIII  and  IX. 


TABLE  VIII 

Results  obtained  by  treating  air-dried  samples  of  meat  with  pepsin  solution 
for  one  hour  ;  adding  10  cc.  of  formalin,  and  then  filtering  at  once. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

i^ioa 

Pan-broiled  beef  

Grams. 
12^0 

Grams. 
.oiu8 

Grams. 
0682 

CC    AC. 

J7-3Ob 

Pan-broiled  beef  . 

1221 

0^4^ 

0678 

CC.     CC 

Average 

CC  .  CO 

I7i7a 

Roasted  beef,  well  done  

OOQ2 

o^oo 

0692 

60  7o 

*  jt/» 
I"U7b 

Roasted  beef,  well  done  

•  H38 

O^H4 

0804 

70.66 

Average 

70.22 

i^iSa 

Raw  beef,  round       

.1488 

.0614 

.0874 

58.73 

M48b 

Raw  beef,  round   

.  1482 

.0604 

.0878 

59.24 

Average 

58.98 

13613 

Raw  beef,  round                   

•  I7°4 

.0^7 

.1167 

68.48 

I36ib 

Raw  beef  round                   

.1682 

.0^9 

.  1  143 

,     ** 

67.95 

Average 

68  21 

[196] 


15 


TABLE  IX 

Results  obtained  by  treating  air-dried  samples  of  meat  with  pepsin  solution 

for  one  hour;   adding  10  cc.  of  formalin,  and  then  allowing  the 

solution  to  stand   for  twenty-three  hours  before  filtering. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

Indigest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

moa 

Pan-broiled  beef 

Grams. 
i<;8c. 

Grams. 

.0720 

Grams. 
086; 

Cl     C7 

mob 

Pan-broiled  beef.  .  . 

1144 

/    ;; 

oco6 

0618 

cc   77 

Average 

cc    17 

H47a 

Roasted  beef,  well  done     .  .    .    . 

1212 

.0^1 

0881 

71    40 

*  jt/" 
I147b 

Roasted  beef,  well  done  

.  IO7I 

.0208 

O771 

72  2O 

Average 

71.84 

13483 

Raw  beef,  round  

.  1467 

.0606 

.0861 

58.60 

I348b 

Raw  beef,  round  

.  K4O 

.0621; 

.OQK 

en.  42 

Average 

Co.  O^ 

13613 

Raw  beef  round 

1688 

OJ.Q7 

I   IQI 

70    CC 

i36ib 

Raw  beef  round 

14.70 

04^8 

I  Ol  I 

70  40 

Average 

70  4.7 

This  experiment  points  clearly  to  the  conclusion  that  for 
malin  can  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  stopping  the  action  of 
acid  pepsin  solutions  upon  meats  after  the  pepsin  solutions  have 
acted  upon  them  for  one  hour  As  a  result  of  the  experiments 
here  described  the  following  method  for  the  determination  of 
the  ease  and  the  rapidity  of  the  digestion  of  meats  was  elaborated. 

The  weighed  quantities  of  meat  are  treated  in  small  beak 
ers,  with  100  cc.  of  the  acid  pepsin  solution  containing  1.25 
grams  of  pepsin  per  litre  of  0.33  per  cent  hydrochloric  acid. 
The  solution  and  the  samples  of  meat  are  thoroughly  stirred 
and  the  meat  is  broken  up  with  a  heavy  glass  rod.  It  was 
found  necessary  to  divide  the  sample  as  finely  as  possible  be 
fore  the  digestion  begins,  and  after  adding  the  pepsin  solution 
it  was  necessary  to  break  down  any  small  lumps  of  the  meat. 
The  beakers  containing  the  meat  and  the  acid  pepsin  solution 
are  then  placed  in  a  large  water  bath  and  kept  at  a  tempera 
ture  of  38  to  40  degrees  for  one,  two,  four,  six  and  twenty  four 

[197] 


16 

hours.  During  the  digestion  it  is  desirable  to  stir  the  solution 
frequently.  In  all  cases  except  when  the  digestion  is  continued 
for  24  hours,  after  the  periods  mentioned,  10  cc.  of  formalin  is 
added  to  stop  the  further  action  of  the  acid  pepsin.  The  solutions 
are  then  filtered  immediately  through  fluted  filters,  thoroughly 
washed  and  the  nitrogen  determined  in  the  residue  by  the 
Kjeldahl  method. 

The  following  tables  give  the  results  of  a  few  experiments 
selected  from  a  large  number  of  similar  experiments  which 
have  been  made  in  this  laboratory,  for  the  purpose  of  studying 
the  influence  of  the  various  methods  of  cooking  upon  the  rapid 
ity  and  the  ease  of  the  digestion  of  meats. 


TABLE  x 

Results  obtained  by  the  action  of  pepsin  solution  for  one  hour  upon  meats. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Beef,  round,  animal  three 
years  old. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

I2ioa 

Raw  beef,  round  

Grams. 

.0871; 

Grams. 

.OIIQ 

Grams. 
.07^6 

86  40 

I2iob 

Raw  beef,  round  

.OQ4C 

.0120 

.0816 

86  35 

Average 

86.^7 

12153 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  

.O^Q4 

.0143 

.0451 

7C  .03 

I2i5b 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  
Average 

.0590 

.0139 

.0451 

76.05 
7C.9Q 

12193 
I2i9b 

Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample  
Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample  
Average 

.0989 
.0946 

.0243 
.0231 

.0746 
.0715 

75-43 
75-58 

75.  50 

I2iia 
I2iib 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°  C  
Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°  C  
Average 

.0799 
.0910 

.0085 
.0095 

.0714 
.0815 

89.36 
89.56 
80  46 

I2i2a 

I2I2b 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  C  .  .  .  . 
Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85  °  C  .  .  .  . 
Average 

.0900 
.1122 

.0128 
.0163 

.0772 
.0959 

85-78 
85.42 
85.67 

[198] 


17 


TABLE  XI 
Results  obtained  by  the  action  of   pepsin  solution  for  two  hours  upon  meats. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Beef,  round,  animal  three 
years  old. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

i2ioa 

Raw  beef    round 

Grams. 

O7O2 

Grams. 
0060 

Grams. 
072^ 

01    20 

I2iob 

Raw  beef    round 

086  C 

0076 

0780 

QI    21 

Average 

qi   25 

12153 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample 

0624. 

0082 

OC42 

86.86 

I2i5b 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  
Average 

•0554 

.0077 

.0477 

86.10 
86.48 

12193 
I2igb 

Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample  
Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample 

.1048 
.Oo6l 

.0186 
0161 

.0862 
0800 

82.25 
83.25 

Average 

82.75 

I2iia 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°  

.OQQt 

.0080 

OqK 

QI  .06 

I2iib 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°  

.  ii^u 

.0002 

.  I  O12 

qi  .8q 

Average 

91  .92 

I2i2a 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  

.0824 

.ooqt; 

•  o72q 

88.47 

I2I2b 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  
Average 

.0925 

.0085 

.0840 

90.81 
8q  64 

TABLE  XII 
Results  obtained  by  the  action  of  pepsin  solution  for  four  hours  upon  meats. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Beef,  round,  animal  three 
years  old. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portior. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

I2ioa 

Raw  beef,  round 

Grams. 
0780 

Grams. 
004  4. 

Grams. 
07^6 

04   ^6 

I2iob 

Raw  beef,  round. 

0872 

oo^o 

0822 

04  27 

Average 

04   ^1 

12153 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample.  .  . 

0588 

oo^c; 

.0;^ 

94  .05 

I2i5b 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  

ocqi: 

00^7 

.0^8 

03.78 

Average 

g^.gl 

12193 
I2igb 

Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample  
Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample  
Average 

.0764 
.0954 

.0087 
.0106 

.0677 
.0848 

88.61 
88.89 
88  75 

I2iia 
I2iib 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°  C  
Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°  C  
Average 

.0947 
.0931 

.0046 
.0043 

.0901 
.0888 

95.14 

95.38 
0^.26 

I2i2a 

I2I2b 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85  °  C  
Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  C  
Average 

.1352 
.0991 

.0065 
.0048 

.1287 
.0943 

95.19 
95.16 

nC    17 

[199] 


18 


TABLE  XIII 
Results  obtained  by  the  action  of  pepsin  solution  for  six  hours  upon  meats. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Beef,  round,  animal  three 
years  old. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

I2ioa 

Raw  beef,  round   .... 

Grams. 
0828 

Grams. 

OO1Q 

Grams. 
0780 

QC    2O 

I2iob 

Raw  beef  round 

0872 

004.  i 

0831 

QC    an 

Average 

V.)  •  J^ 

QC     20 

12153 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  

07  ic 

0016 

0670 

Qd   O7 

I2i5b 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  

OC71 

0028 

oc.dC 

QC    1  1 

Average 

QC  .04 

12193 

Fried  in  lard  

.o8c,2 

0076 

0776 

QI    08 

I2IQb 

Fried  in  lard  

.07  Co 

0070 

0680 

oo  78 

Average 

OI    Q1 

121  la 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85° 

OnCC 

OO2Q 

0026 

121  ib 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85° 

OOjc 

OO2O 

0016 

VU'VIJ 

Average 

VU-VJ 
06   Qd 

12123. 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  . 

OQII 

OOdd 

0867 

OC    17 

I2I2b 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85° 

IO77 

OOCd 

1  021 

SO  •  l  / 

Average 

QC.  08 

TABLE  XIV 
Results  obtained  by  the  action  of  pepsin  solution  for  twenty-four  hours  upon  meat. 


Nitrogen. 

Coeffi 

Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 
Beef,  round,  animal  three 
years  old. 

In  meat. 

In  undi 
gested  re 
sidue. 

In  digest 
ed  portion. 

cient  of 
digesti 
bility. 

I2ioa 

Raw  beef,  round  

Grams. 

07  cc 

Grams. 
002  c 

Grams. 
07^0 

06  60 

I2IOb 

Raw  beef,  round  

•~/  j.? 
0061 

OO1I 

00^2 

96  78 

Average 

06  71 

12153 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  

.0811 

oo  18 

.0781 

QC   07 

I2i5b 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  

.O7CI 

.ooic 

.0716 

QC  ."3d 

Average 

QC  .7C 

12193 
I2i9b 

Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample  
Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample  
Average 

.0858 
.0876 

.0047 
.0047 

.0811 
.0829 

94.52 
94.64 

od  c.8 

121  la 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85°     .... 

0882 

oo  10 

o8c,2 

96  60 

I2iib 

Boiled  two  hours  at  80-85° 

0842 

OO2Q 

o8n 

06  c.6 

Average 

96  c,8 

12123. 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  

1  127 

.OOC7 

.  1070 

Qd    Qd 

I2I2b 

Boiled  five  hours  at  80-85°  

.  I2C2 

*-™3/ 

.ooc,6 

'  ;; 
.  IIQ6 

QC  .  C-l 

Average 

QC  .2^ 

[200] 


19 


TABLE  XV 

Summary  of  the  Coefficients  of  digestibility  of  the  meats  as  obtained  by  means 
of  pepsin  solution  in  the  above  experiments. 


Lab.  No. 

Kind  of  Meat. 
Beef,  round,  animal 
three  years  old. 

Digested 
for 
i  hour 

Digested 
for 
2  hours. 

Digested 
for 
4  hours. 

Digested 
for 
6  hours. 

Digested 
for 
24  hours. 

I2ioa 

Raw  beef,  round  

86  40 

QI  .20 

04.^6 

QC  ,2Q 

96.69 

1  2  1  Ob 

Raw  beef,  round  

86.35 

V          V 
QI  .21 

VT^  '  J 

04.27 

7j             V 

Q5.1O 

*f          ^\ 

96.78 

Average 

V-/W  .   j;) 
86.37 

V           r 

91.25 

vt  •  +*  / 

94-  31 

7j        +S 

95.29 

V~     f  w 

96.73 

12153 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  . 

75-93 

86.86 

94-05 

94-97 

95-37 

I2i5b 

Pan-broiled,  fresh  sample  . 

76.05 

86.10 

93.78 

95.11 

95-34 

Average 

75-99 

86.48 

93-91 

95-04 

95-35 

I2i9a 

Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample 

75-43 

82.25 

88.61 

91.08 

94.52 

I2i9b 

Fried  in  lard,  fresh  sample 

75-58 

83-25 

88.89 

90.78 

94.64 

Average 

75-5° 

82.75 

88.75 

91-93 

94.58 

I2iia 

Boiled  2  hours  at  80-85°  c- 

89.36 

91.96 

95  -H 

96.96 

96.60 

I2iib 

Boiled  2  hours  at  80-85°  c- 

89.56 

91.89 

95.38 

96.93 

96.56 

Average 

89.46 

91.92 

95.26 

96.94 

96.58 

I2i2a 

Boiled  5  hours  at  80-85°  C. 

85.78 

88.47 

95  -!9 

95-17 

94-94 

I2I2b 

Boiled  5  hours  at  80-85°  C  . 

85.47 

90.81 

95.16 

94-99 

95-53 

Average 

85.62 

89.64 

95-17 

95.08 

95.23 

It  is  plainly  evident  from  the  results  given  in  the  above 
tables  that  there  is  a  difference  in  the  ease  and  the  rapidity  of  the 
digestion  of  the  protein  of  raw  meats  and  meats  cooked  by  the 
common  methods.  This  difference  is  best  seen  in  the  results 
obtained  by  digestion  of  meats  with  pepsin  solution  for  one 
hour.  Although  the  data  here  presented  are  not  sufficient 
basis  for  definite  final  conclusions,  it  does  seem  that  the  pro 
tein  of  raw  meat  is  more  readily  soluble  or  digestible  than  the 
protein  of  cooked  meats.  The  experiments  also  indicate  that 
the  protein  of  meat  cooked  by  boiling  is  more  readily  digest 
ible  than  the  protein  of  broiled  or  fried  meats.  The  protein  of 
fried  meats  is  less  rapidly  soluble  or  digestible  than  broiled 
meat.  These  same  differences  are  also  noticeable  in  the  results 
obtained  after  continuing  the  digestion  for  two  hours,  but  after 
longer  digestion  these  differences  mostly  disappear  and  after 
digesting  with  pepsin  solution  for  24  hours  the  digestibility  of 
raw  and  cooked  meats  seems  to  be  practically  the  same.  Fur 
ther,  the  results  here  reported  show  that  the  method  of  artifi- 

[.201] 


20 

cial  digestion,  as  thus  modified,  gives  a  ready  means  of  deter 
mining  the  relative  ease  and  the  rapidity  of  the  digestion  of 
the  protein  of  foods.  The  further  application  of  this  modified 
method  of  artificial  digestion  is  being  studied  in  this  laborato 
ry.  Experiments  are  also  being  made  to  see  if  other  substan 
ces  such  as  phenol  for  example,  cannot  be  used  to  better  ad 
vantage  than  formalin  in  stopping  the  action  of  the  acid  pep 
sin  solution.  Further  investigations  may  perhaps  lead  to  some 
changes  in  the  method, 


[202] 


21 

TITLES  OF  ARTICLES  AND    BOOKS   PUBLISHED    BY   THE   CORPS    OF 

INSTRUCTION,  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS,  BETWEEN 

MAY  i,  1902,  AND  MAY  i,  1903. 

PRESIDENT  A.  S.  DRAPER— 

"  Co-Education  in  the  United  States," 

Address  before  Twentieth  Century  Club,  Boston,  Mass.,  Jan.  17,  1903. 

Educational  Review,  Feb.  1903. 

"  Vital  Points  Touching   the    Public   School    System   of   Philadelphia.  " 
An  address   before  the   Public  Education  Society  of  Philadelphia., 
Jan.  17,  1903.     Published  by  the  Society. 
BAKER,  I.  O.-- 

"  A  Treatise  on  Roads  and  Pavements," 

John  Wiley  and  Sons,  New  York.     (646  pp.  8  vo. ) 
"  "  Road  Laws  of  Illinois," 

Engineering  Record,  N.  Y.,  April  25,  1903. 

BEAL,  ALVIN  C. 

"  Forcing  Tomatoes," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  81,  Nov.,  1902. 
"  The  Window  Garden," 

Trans.  111.  State  Horticultural  Society,  Dec.,  1902. 
BLAIR,  J.  C.— 

"  The  Study  in  Horticulture,"  etc.    A  series  of  articles  on  the  study  of 
horticulture   in   the   Schools,  School    News   and   Practical    Educator, 
Oct.,  1902-Apr.,  1903. 
"  Fruit  for  the  Farmer's  Table," 

Colman's  Rural  World,  March  n,  13,  1903. 
"  "  Prevention  of  Bitter  Rot," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular  No.  58,  July,  1902. 
"  Bitter  Rot  of  Apples," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull. No.  77,  July,  1902. 
"  Fruit  and  Orchard  Investigations," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular  No.  67,  Feb.  1093. 
"  Results  from  Cool  and  Cold  Storage  Experiments," 

Trans,  of  111.  Horticultural  Society,  Dec.  1902. 
"  The  Cultivation  of  the  Apple  Orchard,'  Ibid. 
"  Spraying,"  Ibid. 
"  The  Apple  Rot  Problem,"  Ibid. 

BRENKE,  W.  C.— 

"  Observations  of  Variable  Stars  of  Long  Period," 
Astronomical  Journal,  Jan.  1903. 

BROOKS,  MORGAN— 

"  Operating  Conditions  Governing  Direct— Current  Machinery," 

Univ.  of  111.  Technograph,  May,  1902. 
ff  "  Electrical  Progress  in  United  States  in  1902," 

Western  Electrician,  Jan.  3,  1903. 

[203] 


22 

CLARK,  T.  A.— 

Biographies  of  Daniel  DeFoe,  Robert  Southey,  and  Robert  Burns,  Sept^ 
and  Dec.  1902,  and  Feb.,  1903.  Also  editor  of  the  series  of  biographies! 
32  pp.  each. 

C.  M.  Parker,  Taylorville,  111. 

Supplementary  Reading  for  Grammar  Schools.  (A  series  of  monthly  se 
lections,  with  notes.) 

School  News  and  Practical  Educator,  1902-1903. 
COLVIN,  S.  S.— 

"  Invention  Versus  Form  in  English  Composition  ;   an  Inductive  Study," 
Pedagogical  Seminary,  Dec.  1902. 

CRANDALL,  C.  S. 

"  Pruning  as  applied  to  the  Apple  Orchard."     Trans,  of  111.  Horticultural 

Society,  Dec.,  1902. 

"  The  Food  Requirements  of  Orchard  and  Garden  Plants,"  Ibid. 
DAVENPORT,  E. — 

"  History    and   Plan  of    Co-operative    Experiments    in    Agriculture    in 
Illinois," 

Annual  Report,  Office  of  Experiment  Stations,  U.  S.  Dep't  of  Agric. 
DEXTER,  E.  G. — 

"  A  Study  of  Twentieth  Century  Success," 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  July,  1902. 

"  Should  Entrance  to  College  be  Through  the  Examination  of  the  Pupil 
or  of  the  School?" 

Proceedings  National  Educational  Assoc.,  1902. 
"  The  Physiological  Effects  of  Diminished  Air  Pressure," 

Scientific  American  Supplement,  Aug.  30,  1902. 
"  Weather  Superstitions," 

Scientific  American  Supplement,  Dec.,  1902. 
"  Training  for  the  Learned  Professions," 

Educational  Review,  Jan.,  1903. 
"  Inductive  Studies  in  Weather  Influence," 

Monthly  Weather  Review,  Jan.,  1903. 
"  Uniformity  in  College  Catalogs," 

Educational  Review,  Feb.,  1903. 
"  High  Grade  Men  ;  in  College  and  Out," 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  March,  1903. 
•'The  Psychology  of  Weather  Influence," 

Proceedings  of  American  Pyschological  Association. 
"  What  is  the  Best  College?" 

The  World's  Work,  April,  1903. 
"  Accidents  from  College  Football," 

Educational  Review,  April,  1903. 
"  The  Educational  Status  of  the  Legal  Profession," 

The  Green  Bag,  April,  1903. 

[204] 


23 

DODGE,  D.  K.— 

"  Learning  to  Read," 

School  and  Home  Education,  April,  1903. 

(Editing  Department  of  Modern  Philology, 
International  Encyclopedia,  1902-03.) 
ERF,  OSCAR- 

'•  Refrigeration  in  Creameries," 

Ice  and  Refrigeration,  July,  1902. 
"  "  Standardization  of  Milk  and  Cream," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  July,  1902. 
FISK,  G.  M.— 

"  "  Continental   Opinion  Regarding  a  Proposed   Middle  European   Tariff 

Union," 

Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies,  Series  XX.,  Nos.  11-12. 
"  German-American  Most  Favored  Nation  Relations," 

Journal  of  Political  Economy,  Vol.  XL,  No.  2. 
FOLSOM,  J.  W.— 

"  Collembola  of  the  Grave," 

Psyche,  Vol.  9,  1902. 
"  "  Insect  Psychology," 

Psyche,  Vol.  10,  1903. 
FORBES,  S.  A.— 

"  Additional  Insecticide  Experiments  for  the  San  Jose  Scale," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  72,  May,  1902. 
"  The  Corn  Bill  Bugs  in  Illinois," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  79,  Oct.  1902. 
"  "  Methods  and  Results  of  Field  Insecticide  Work  against  the  San  Jose 

Scale," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.  No.  80,  Oct.  1902. 

"  Twenty-second  Report  of  the  State  Entomologist  on  the  Noxious  and 
Beneficial  Insects  of  the  State  of  Illinois."  Eleventh  Report 
of  S.  A.  Forbes.  Feb.,  1903. 

"  "  Report  of  the  Illinois  State  Entomologist  on  the  Horticultural  Inspec 

tion  Law."     Feb.,  1903. 
FRASER,  W.  J.  — 

"  Standard  Milk  and  Cream," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  74,  June,  1002. 
"  "  Dairy  Investigations," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular  No.  63    Jan.,  1903. 
"  "  Dairy  Conditions  and  Suggestions  for  their  Improvement," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  84,  Feb.  1903. 
FULTON,  E. — 

"  A  Selection  of  the  Shorter  Poems  of  Wordsworth,"  pp.  256,  12  mo. 

Macmillan  Co.,  1903. 
GLOVER,  A.  J. — 

"  Records  of  Individual  Cows  on  Dairy  Farms," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  85,  April,  1903. 
[205] 


24 

GREENE,  E.  B.— 

"  American  History,  1783-1902."* 

School  News  and  Practical  Educator,  Sept.  to  May,  1901-1902. 
"  "  Church  and  State  in  Recent  European  Politics,"* 

Current  Encyclopedia,  Aug.,  1001. 

GRINDLEY,  H.  S.,  and  MOJONNIER,  T.  J. 

"  The  Artificial  Method  for  Determining  the  Ease  and  the  Rapidity  of 

the  Digestion  of  Meats," 
University  Studies,  March,  1903. 

HOPKINS,  C.  G.— 

"  Alfalfa  on  Illinois  Soil," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  76,  July,  1902. 

"  "  A  Quantitative  Method  for  Determining  the  Acidity  of  Soils,"  jointly 

with  W.  H.  Knox  and  J.  H    Pettit. 
Proceedings  of  Nineteenth  Annual  Convention  of  Assoc.  of  Official 

Agricultural  Chemists,  Oct.  1902. 
"  "  Methods  of  Corn  Breeding," 

Part  of  Bull.  No.  123,  Office  of  Exp.  Stations,  U.  S.  Dep't.   of  Agric., 
"  "  Methods  of  Corn  Breeding," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp,  Station  Bull.,  No.  82,  Dec.,  1902. 
"Fixation  of  Atmospheric  Nitrogen  by  Alfalfa  on  Ordinary  Prairie  Soil 

under  Various  Treatments," 

Journal  of  American  Chemical  Society,  Dec.,  1902. 
"  "  Sugar  Beet  Investigations  in  Illinois,"  (jointly  with  L.  H.  Smith.) 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station,  Circular  No.  62,  Jan.,  1903. 
"  "  Growing  Corn  on  Peaty  Soil," 

Breeder's  Gazette,  Jan.,  1903. 
"  "  Practical  Methods  of  Corn  Breeding," 

Armour's  Farmers'  Almanac,  Jan.,  1903. 
"Alfalfa  Bacteria," 

Breeder's  Gazette,  Dec.  3,  1902,  and  Jan.  7,  1903. 
"  "  Investigation  of  Illinois  Soils," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular  No.  64,  Feb.,  1903. 
"  "  Corn  Experiments  in  Illinois,"  (Jointly  with  L.  H.  Smith  and  A.  D.  Sha- 

mel,) 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular  No.  66,  Feb.,  1903. 
"The  Present  Stock  Fertility  of  Illinois  Soils  and   Methods  of   Maintaining  and 

Increasing  the  Productive  Capacity  of  Illinois  Lands," 
U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular  No.  68,  April,  1903. 


"Owing  to  the  absence  of  Prof.  Greene  these  were  omitted  from  the  list  of  last  year. 

[206] 


25 

LLOYD,  J.  W.— 

"  Controlling  the  Second  Brood  of  Codling  Moth," 

Trans,  of  111.  Horticultural  Society,  1902. 
"  Spraying  During  the  Blossoming  Period," 

Trans,  of  111.  Horticultural  Society.  1902. 
"  "  Pruning  the  Gooseberry," 

Orange  Judd  Farmer,  March  14,  1903. 

MOJONNIER,  T.  J.— See  under  Grindley. 
MOSIER,  J.  G.— 

"Climate  of  Illinois," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.  No.  68,  April,  1903. 

Moss,  C.  M.— 

"  What  are  Denominational  Schools  for?" 
Christian  Advocate,  Oct.  9,  1902. 

MUDGE,  ISADORE  G. — 

"  Instruction  in  Reference  Work," 

Library  Journal,  June,  1902. 
MUMFORD,  H.  W.— 

"  Comparison  of  Silage  and  Shock  Corn  for  Wintering  Calves  Intended 

for  Beef  Production," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.  No.  73,  June,  1902.    Supplement. 
Nov.,  1902. 

"  Market  Classes  and  Grades  of  Cattle  with  Suggestions  for  Interpreting 

Market  Quotations," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.  No.  78,   July,  1902. 
"  Feeds  Supplementary  to  Corn  for  Fattening  Steers," 
U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.  No.  83,  Jan,  1903. 
"  Live  Stock  Investigations," 

U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular  No.  65,  Feb.  1003. 
"  Selecting,  Feeding  and  Breeding  Farm  Animals  for  Profit," 

In  "Practical  Farming  and  Gardening, "pub.  by  Rand,  McNally  &  Co. 
PARR,  S.  W.— 

"  The  Volumetric  Determination  of  Copper," 

Journal  of  American  Chemical  Society,  June,  1902. 
"The  Coals  of  Illinois," 

Univ.  of  111.  Technograph,  1902. 
"  Chemical  Analysis  and  Heating  Value  of  Illinois  Coals," 

Bull,   of     Bureau    of     Labor   Statistics,    2oth    Annual    Coal    Rept., 

Springfield,  111. 
RHOADES,  L.  A.— 

"  Biblische  Geschicten,— Selections  from  Wiedemann's  Wie  ich  meinen. 
Kleinen  die  Biblischen  Geschichten  erzahle,"  edited  with  ques 
tions  and  vocabulary. 
Henry  Holt  and  Co.,  1902. 

[207] 


26 

ROBINSON,  M.  H.- 

"  The  Report  of  the  Industrial   Commission  on  Trusts."     A  review  and 

criticism  of  the  Report. 
Yale  Review  for  November,  1902. 
"  "  A  History  of  Taxation  in  New  Hampshire," 

Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Association,  Third  Series, 
Vol.  III.  No.  3,  August,  1902  ;  pp  232,  Macmillan  Co.,  N.  Y. 

SCHOOLCRAFT,  H.  L. — 

"  The  Genesis  of  the  Grand    Remonstrance   from   Parliament  to   King 

Charles  I," 
University  Studies,  June,  1902. 

SCOTT,  F.  W.- 

Biographies  of  Addison,  Keats  and  Shelley,  each  32    pp.,  Oct.    1902,  and 
Mar.  and  Apr.  1903.     See  Clark,  T.  A. 

C.  M.  Parker,  Taylorville,  111. 
"  The  Battle  of  Maple  Hole,"  (story) 

Savannah,  Ga.  Magazine,  April,  1903. 

SCOTT,  J.  B.— 

Cases  on  International  Law," 
Boston  Book  Co.,  Dec.  1902. 

(Art.  on  International  Law, 
New  International  Encyclopedia,  1903.) 

''  The  Place  of  International  Law  in  American  Jurisprudence," 
The  Green  Bag,  April,  1903. 

SMITH,  L.  H.— 

(See  under  C.  G.  Hopkins.) 
TALBOT,  A.  N.— 

"Alleged  Mistakes  in  Engineering  Education,  and  Their  Remedies," 
Proceedings  of  Soc.  for  Promotion  of  Eng'g  Education,  vol.  X.,  1902 

TOWNSEND,  E.  J. — 

"  Foundations  of  Geometry," 

Trans,  from  the  German  of  Hilbert. 
Open  Court  Pub.  Co.,  1902. 

WATSON,  F.  R.— 

"Viscosity  of  Liquids  Determined  by  Measurement  of  Capillary  Waves," 
Physical  Review,  July,  1902. 

WELLS,  N.  A. — 

"  A  New  Movement  in  Art  Education," 
Inland  Architect,  Dec.,  1902. 

WILLIAMS,  W.  H.— 

"  The  Efficiency  of  Some  Rocky  Mountain  Coals," 

Trans,  of  Associated  Engineering  Societies,  Dec.  1902. 

» 

[208 1 


of  fllmots 


Vol  I  MARCH,  1904  No.  6 


Illinois  Railway  Legislation  and  Commission 
Control  Since  1870 


By 


JOSEPH  HINCKLEY  GORDON,  A.  M., 

Instructor  in  History  in  the  Academy  of  the  University  of  Illinois 


With  an  Introduction  by  M.  B.  Hammond,  Ph.D., 
Assistant  Professor  of  Economics 


Slniuermtp 


NOTE. 

During  the  year  1900-'01  the  advanced  students  in  the  Eco 
nomic  Seminary  devoted  themselves  to  a  study  of  the  railroad 
development  of  Illinois,  under  the  direction  of  Professor  M.  B. 
Hammond,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  department  during  my 
absence  in  Europe.  In  addition  to  other  excellent  work  done, 
the  essay  here  published  was  written  by  Mr.  Gordon,  under 
Professor  Hammond's  direction.  The  history  of  railroad  legisla 
tion  before  1870  was  also  written  up,  but  is  not  at  present  avail 
able  for  publication.  Accordingly,  Professor  Hammond  has  kind 
ly  written  an  introduction  to  the  present  essay,  covering  the 
ground  before  1870.  This  introductory  historical  sketch  is 
drawn  chiefly  from  the  results  of  the  labors  of  the  students  who 
were  at  work  under  Professor  Hammond.  Mr.  Gordon  has  re 
cently  revised  his  essay  with  Professor  Hammond's  assistance. 

DAVID  KINLEY, 

Professor  of  Economics. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION  :     Railway  Legislation  Before  1870. 

SECTION  I.  Railway  Conditions  in  1870  and  the  Constitu 

tional  Provisions  Concerning  Railroads. 

SECTION  II.  The  Restrictive  Legislation  of  1871  and  the  Work 

of  the  First  Commission. 

SECTION  III.         Litigation  over  the  Enforcement  of  the  Law. 

SECTION  IV.  The  Law  of  1873  and  the  Powers  of  the  Commis 
sion  as  Modified  by  It. 

SECTION  V.  The  Schedule  of  Maximum  Rates. 

SECTION  VI.         The  Final  Struggle  in  the  Courts. 

SECTION  VII.       General  Legislation  and  Litigation. 

SECTION  VIII.      Railway  Construction  and  Consolidation. 

SECTION  IX.         Later  Work  of  the  Commission. 

SECTION  X.  Conclusion. 


INTRODUCTION. 
RAILWAY  LEGISLATION  BEFORE  1870. 

To  the  student  of  transportation  problems  the  railway  his 
tory  of  Illinois  possesses  an  interest  hardly  equalled  by  that  of 
any  of  her  sister  states.  This  is  not  because  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  railway  interests,  though  ever  since  1870  the  railway 
mileage  of  Illinois  has  exceeded  that  of  any  other  state  of  the 
Union  and  her  chief  city  has  long  been  known  as  the  railway 
capital  of  the  world.  Nor  is  it  because  of  their  antiquity  that 
we  feel  an  especial  interest  in  Illinois  railroads.  Although  this 
state  was  the  pioneer  among  western  states  in  railway  building, 
and  although  both  private  and  public  agitation  in  favor  of  rail 
roads  began  in  Illinois  almost  as  soon  as  in  the  East,  most  of 
the  eastern  commonwealths  had  already  made  a  respectable 
showing  in  railway  construction  before  the  western  agitation 
had  attained  any  tangible  results. 

Our  interest  in  Illinois  railway  problems  lies  rather  in 
their  legislative  aspects.  This  state,  after  having  experimented 
unsuccessfully  with  public  ownership  and  management  of  rail 
roads,  abandoned  the  plan  and,  like  most  of  her  sister  states, 
went  to  the  other  extreme  and  placed  matters  of  construction 
and  operation  entirely  in  private  hands.  Not  appreciating  the 
fact  that  they  were  dealing  with  an  institution  whose  relation 
to  private  industry  and  public  welfare  was  essentially  different 
from  that  of  other  industrial  undertakings,  the  people  of  Illi 
nois  at  succsssive  sessions  of  the  legislative  assembly  freely 
granted  charters  of  incorporation  to  railway  companies,  and 
made  little  effort  to  place  on  the  powers  conferred  such  limita 
tions  as  were  necessary  to  safeguard  the  agricultural,  manufac 
turing  and  trading  interests  of  the  state.  The  mistakes  in  this 
policy  soon  made  themselves  felt  in  the  so-called  "  Granger  " 

[213] 


agitation.  After  a  bitter  struggle  in  the  courts  and  the  legis 
lature,  the  right  of  the  state  to  regulate  and  control  its  railway 
corporations  was  secured  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt.  It  was 
in  this  struggle  for  control  that  Illinois  led  the  way.  The 
McLean  County  case,  the  Neal  Ruyyles  case,  the  case  of  The  Peo 
ple  r.  The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  and,  above  all,  the 
case  of  Mnnn  v.  Illinois,  established  the  right  of  the  state  legis 
lature  under  the  Illinois  Constitution  of  1870  to  regulate  the 
charges  for  railway  transportation  within  the  state,  and,  fur- 
thermore,f  ully  demonstrated  the  public  character  of  the  railway 
business.  As  is  well  known,  these  decisions  had  more  than  a 
local  bearing.  They  became  the  precedents  for  decisions  in 
similar  cases  arising  in  other  states  and  they  mark  a  new 
era  in  American  railway  affairs. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  way  in  which  Illinois  did  pioneer 
work  in  railway  legislation.  She  was  the  first  state  to  estab 
lish  a  railway  commission  having  the  power  of  regulation  and 
control  in  its  own  hands,— often  called  the  "strong"  commis 
sion,  or  the  "commission  with  power".  This,  too,  was  an  .out 
come  of  the  Granger  agitation  and  is  closely  connected  with 
the  decisions  of  the  courts  just  referred  to,  which  settled  the 
right  of  the  legislature  to  control  the  roads  through  such  a 
commission.  The  question  as  to  whether  this  type  of  a  com 
mission  is  preferable  to  the  "advisory"  type  found  in  Massa 
chusetts  and  other  states  has  been  ably  discussed  by  various 
writers,  who  have  not  all  reached  the  same  conclusions.  In  Il 
linois,  at  the  time  the  Railroad  and  Warehouse  Commission 
was  established,  there  was  little  discussion  of  the  merits  of  one 
type  as  compared  with  those  of  the  other.  The  condition  of  the 
public  mind,  which  had  been  wrought  up  to  a  state  of  excite 
ment  and  fury  by  the  persistence  of  extortionate  charges  and 
unjust  discriminations  by  the  roads  of  the  state,  was  not  such 
that  the  people  could  be  satisfied  by  mere  advice.  An  effort 
was  made  to  go  directly  to  the  heart  of  the  difficulty  by  means 
of  legislative  prohibitions  and  by  entrusting  such  powers  to  a 

[214] 


commission  as  were  deemed  essential  to  secure  the  enforce 
ment  of. the  laws.  Perhaps  the  wisdom  of  this  move,  under 
the  existing  circumstances,  has  nowhere  been  better  demon 
strated  than  by  the  experience  of  the  state  of  Iowa,  which, 
when  confronted  with  similar  problems,  first  experimented 
with  the  advisory  commission  and  later  abandoned  it  to  estab 
lish  a  "strong"  commission  modeled  after  that  of  Illinois.1 

In  this  brief  outline  we  have  attempted  to  show  the  bear 
ing  of  the  Illinois  railway  problem  of  the  '70's  on  the  railway 
problem  of  the  country  at  large.  The  way  in  which  the  people 
of  Illinois  solved  their  own  problem  forms  the  subject  of  Mr. 
Gordon's  paper,  and  it  would  be  a  waste  of  words  to  attempt 
further  to  elucidate  that  which  he  has  so  clearly  presented.  In 
order  to  give  this  interesting  episode  its  proper  historical  set 
ting,  it  may  be  well,  however,  to  present  to  the  reader  a  short 
sketch  of  the  early  history  of  railway  construction  and  legisla 
tion  in  Illinois. 

As  already  suggested,  a  movement  in  favor  of  the  con 
struction  of  railroads  in  Illinois  began  as  early  as  February, 
1829,  when  Governor  Coles  of  this  State  wrote  to  Governor 
Bernard  of  New  York  concerning  internal  improvements  and 
among  other  things,  inquired  as  to  the  probable  expense  of 
constructing  a  railroad  through  the  open  prairies  of  Illinois. 
At  about  the  same  time  the  editor  of  the  Illinois  Magazine, 
published  at  Vandalia,  was  advocating  the  building  of  railroads 
in  Illinois.2  By  1831  the  matter  was  before  the  legislature  and 
that  body  appointed  a  commission  to  report  on  the  "  practi 
cability  and  probable  cost  of  constructing  a  canal  or  railroad" 
in  St.  Clair  county.  The  lack  of  an  efficient  means  of  trans 
portation  was  sorely  felt  by  the  early  settlers  in  Illinois,  whose 
only  highways  were  the  muddy  "dirt"  roads  which  still  em 
barrass  the  Illinois  farmer  in  his  efforts  to  market  his  crops. 


1  For  an  account  of  the  Iowa  experience,  see  Dixon's  State  Railroad  Control, 
with  a  History  of  its  Development  in  Iowa. 

2  Illinois  Magazine,  1,  85. 

[215] 


8 

The  experiments  being  made  with  steam  railroads  in  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  South  Carolina  at  about 
this  time  were  eagerly  watched  by  the  Illinois  farmers,  and  it  is 
not  surprising  that  many  of  them  believed  that  the  new  device 
for  transportation  offered  them  a  means  of  escape  from  their 
own  difficulties. 

For  several  years,  however,beginningwith  1831, a  keen  con 
troversy  took  place  both  within  and  without  the  legislature  be 
tween  the  friends  of  the  railroads  and  those  who  favored  canals. 
The  railway  advocates  certainly  presented  the  stronger  argu 
ments1  but,  on  the  other  hand,  railway  building  was  as  yet 
in  the  experimental  stage,  while  the  success  of  the  Erie  Canal 
created  a  strong  bias  in  favor  of  water  as  a  means  of  transpor 
tation;  and  finally,  in  the  legislative  session  of  1834-'35,  the 
supporters  of  the  Illinois-Michigan  Canal  triumphed  over  their 
railway  opponents.  But,  although  the  canal  project  undoubt 
edly  had  popular  support  at  this  time,  the  desire  for  railroads 
still  remained  strong  with  the  people.  The  same  session  of  the 
legislature  which  adopted  the  canal  project  also  passed  the 
first  railway  incorporation  act.  This  provided  for  the  construc 
tion  of  a  railroad  from  Chicago  to  a  point  on  the  Wabash  river 
opposite  Yincennes,  Indiana.  No  organization  was  effected 
under  this  charter  and  the  road  was  never  built.  The  first  rail 
road  actually  constructed  in  this  state  was  a  private  enterprise, 
unincorporated,  undertaken  by  Ex-Governor  Reynolds  in  1836- 
'37.  It  was  a  coal  road,  six  miles  in  length,  built  from  the  bluffs 
in  St.  Clair  county  to  the  Mississippi  river  at  a  point  about  op 
posite  St.  Louis.  In  character  and  purpose  this  road  was  similar  to 
the  coal  and  granite  tramways  built  in  Massachusetts,  Pennsyl 
vania  and  other  states,  as  well  as  in  England,  and,  except  as  it 
marks  a  beginning,  its  consideration  hardly  belongs  to  railway 
history.  The  road  was  at  first  built  with  wooden  rails,  and 
horse  power  was  the  motive  power,  though  later  steam  was 


i  Senate  Journal,  i832-*33,  p.  218. 

[216] 


employed.1  This  road  was  finally  incorporated  and  is  now  a 
part  of  the  Louisville,  Evansville,  and  St.  Louis  Railroad.  The 
Chicago  and  Galena  Union  Railroad,  which  was  chartered  Jan 
uary  16.  1836,  was  the  first  road  to  be  chartered  by  an  Illinois 
legislature  which  was  actually  constructed  and  put  in  operation 
under  its  charter.  The  survey  of  this  road  was  begun  in  1838, 
but  the  financial  stringency  following  the  crisis  of  1837  delayed 
construction,  and  the  road  did  not  begin  operation  until  near 
the  close  of  1848.  This  road  later  came  under  the  control  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  and  now  forms  a  part  of  its 
western  lines. 

From  1836  on,  the  incorporation  of  railroad  companies  in 
Illinois  proceeded  with  some  rapidity.  Not  only  the  incorpo- 
rators  bat  likewise  the  people  and  their  representatives  in  the 
legislature  expected  large  profits  to  be  realized  by  these  com 
panies.  Attempts  were  made  in  several  of  the  early  charters 
to  guard  against  excessive  profits.  A  notable  example  is  the  first 
act  of  incorporation  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  which  pro 
vided  that  when  the  dividends  exceeded  12  per  cent,  on  the  in 
vestment,  the  legislature  might  reduce  the  tolls.  This  marks 
the  first  attempt  at  restrictive  legislation. 

By  far  the  most  interesting  chapter  in  the  early  history  of 
Illinois  railroads  is  that  which  deals  with  the  effort  of  the  peo 
ple  to  establish  a  system  of  railroads  owned  and  managed 
directly  by  the  state.  This  was  a  part  of  the  great  internal 
improvement  plan  of  1837.  Like  many  of  her  sister  states  Illi 
nois  was  siezed  with  the  internal  improvement  mania  which 
possessed  the  people  of  the  United  States  during  the  '30's- 
This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  forces 
which  caused  this  remarkable  movement.  As  historians  have 
frequently  pointed  out,  it  was  due,  in  part,  to  the  growth  of  a 
surplus  in  the  national  treasury  and  its  distribution  in  1837, 
and,  in  part,  to  bank  and  land  speculation  then  rife  in  all  the 

iNiles  Register,  November  25,  1837.     See  also  Reynolds,  My  Own  Times. 

[217] 


10 

southern  and  western  states.  In  Illinois  the  movement  culmi 
nated  in  the  internal  improvement  convention  of  1836- 
'37,  and  this  resulted  in  the  passage  through  the  legislature  of 
the  act  of  February  27,  1837,  entitled,  "An  act  to  establish 
and  maintain  a  general  system  of  internal  improvements ". 
This  act  provided  for  seven  commissioners  to  superintend  the 
construction  of  certain  specified  public  improvements,  whose 
estimated  cost  was  $11,000,000.  These  expenditures,  for  which 
a  state  loan  of  $8,000,000  was  authorized,  were,  in  part,  for  the 
improvement  of  the  chief  rivers  of  the  state  and,  in  part,  for 
the  improvement  of  roads  and  bridges  in  those  counties  where 
no  railroads  were  projected;  but  all  but  $600,000  of  the  amount 
was  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  nine  different  railroads. 
This  ambitious  program,  which  was  entirely  beyond  the  re 
sources  and  credit  of  Illinois  at  the  time,  was  hastily  passed 
in  spite  of  the  protests  of  conservative  men  within  and  without 
the  legislature.  Almost  from  the  first,  the  impossibility  of  ex 
ecuting  the  plan  was  realized.  Eastern  capital  would  not  enter 
the  undertaking,  as  had  been  confidently  predicted,  and  within 
three  years  after  the  passage  of  the  act  a  special  session  of  the 
legislature,  called  for  the  purpose,  had  repealed  it.  The  only 
part  of  this  stupendous  undertaking  which  was  ever  completed 
was  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Cross  Railroad  from 
Springfield  to  Meredosia  on  the  Illinois  river,  33^  miles  beyond 
Jacksonville.  The  first  eight  miles  of  the  road,  from  Meredosia 
east,  were  opened  in  November,  1838,  and  the  first  locomotive 
ever  used  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  was  then  employed.  The 
road  was  completed  as  far  as  Jacksonville  by  January  1,  1840, 
and  to  Springfield  by  May  13,  1842.  It  had  cost  $1,000,000.  Its 
administration  by  the  state  was  at  a  loss  and  it  was  soon  sold 
for  $100,000.  None  of  its  successive  lessees  succeeded  in  mak 
ing  it  pay  and  by  1843  it  had  been  abandoned.  Prior  to  this,  its 
one  locomotive  had  been  upset  in  a  swamp  and  mules  driven 
tandem  had  taken  its  place.  In  1847  the  road  was  again  sold, 


[2I8J 


11 

this  time  for  $21,000,  and  was  re-opened  for  traffic  in  1849.  It 
now  forms  a  part  of  the  Wabash  Railway  system. 

The  internal  improvement  plan,  after  having  saddled  a 
debt  of  $6,000,000  on  the  state,  was  reluctantly  abandoned. 
Many  people  continued  to  hope  that  later  years  might  see  a  re 
newal  of  the  attempt  to  create  a  transportation  system  owned 
and  managed  by  the  state.  The  surveyed  and  unfinished  por 
tions  of  the  state  roads  were  granted  to  the  local  divisions  of 
government  through  which  they  ran,  with  the  proviso  always 
inserted  in  the  grant  that  the  state  might  resume  control 
whenever  it  desired  to  use  them  for  their  original  purposes. 

After  the  internal  improvement  plan  had  been  abandoned, 
the  legislature  reverted  to  the  plan  of  granting  charters  to  pri 
vate  companies.  Under  the  early  railway  charters  but  little 
had  been  accomplished.  According  to  unofficial  statistics,1 
there  were  as  late  as  1852  only  ninety-five  miles  of  railroad  in 
operation  in  the  entire  state.  The  roads  which  were  now 
chartered  were,  in  many  instances,  planned  to  complete  por 
tions  of  the  state  roads  begun  under  the  act  of  1837.  The  re 
luctance  of  the  people  to  give  up  the  plan  of  state  ownership 
and  management  of  these  roads  is  seen  in  the  proviso,  usually 
inserted  in  the  charters,  that  the  state  may  purchase  the  road 
after  a  specified  number  of  years  by  paying  to  the  company  the 
cost  of  the  road  together  with  interest  thereon. 

Professor  B.  H.  Meyer,  in  tracing  the  history  of  the  rail 
way  legislation  of  this  period  for  the  country  as  a  whole,  has 
shown  that  in  all  the  western  states,  at  least,  these  early 
charters  were  loosely  drawn  and  that  they  show  little  compre 
hension  on  the  part  of  the  legislators  of  the  public  nature  of 
the  railway  industry,  or  of  the  serious  difficulties  which  were 
sure  to  follow  as  a  result  of  the  failure  clearly  to  define  the 
mutual  rights  and  obligations  of  the  corporations  and  the  com 
monwealths.2  In  this  respect  the  state  of  Illinois  presented 

1  Chicago  Daily  Press,  Feb.  16,  1856.     But  see  p.  18. 

2  Meyer,  Railway  Legislation  in  the  United  States,  8-9. 

[219] 


12 

no  exception  to  the  general  rule.  In  matters  pertaining  to 
capitalization,  increase  of  stock,  indebtedness,  the  accumula 
tion  of  a  sinking  fund,  and  even  in  the  determination  of  the 
route  and  the  fixing  of  terminals,  there  was  the  utmost  loose 
ness  and  lack  of  uniformity.  The  early  charters  almost  invari 
ably  conferred  upon  the  directors  unlimited  power  to  fix  the 
rates  of  toll,  and  this  provision  later  proved  embarrassing  when 
the  state  undertook  to  regulate  the  charges  for  transportation. 
Eelying  upon  the  decision  of  the  Federal  Supreme  Court  in  the 
Dartmouth  College  case  as  proof  of  the  inviolability  of  their 
charters,  the  railway  owners  and  officials  insisted  that  any  at 
tempt  on  the  part  of  the  legislature  to  interfere  with  their  rate- 
making  power  was  a  clear  violation  of  their  contract.  In  spite 
of  the  fact  that  a  general  incorporation  act  was  passed  by  the 
Illinois  legislature  in  1849,  the  practice  of  granting  special 
charters  continued,  and  no  road  was  actually  incorporated 
under  a  general  law  until  after  1870.  The  reason  for  neglect 
ing  to  take  advantage  of  the  general  incorporation  act  of  1849 
seems  to  have  been  that  any  road  organized  under  its  provisions 
must  still  obtain  from  the  legislature  specific  permission  to 
condemn  land,  thus  necessitating  a  special  act  for  each  road. 
Furthermore,  the  act  of  1849  fixed  the  maximum  rate  for  trans 
porting  passengers  at  three  cents  a  mile. 

During  the  years  from  1848  to  1854  railway  building  in 
Illinois  was  greatly  hampered  by  the  attitude  of  the  legislature 
in  upholding  what  was  known  as  the  "State  policy"  in  matters 
of  railway  construction.  This  policy  was  to  refuse  to  charter 
any  east  and  west  road  whose  proposed  terminals  were  trading 
centres  outside  of  the  state.  The  object  was  to  build  up  com 
mercial  centres  within  the  state  and  the  policy  was  directed,  in 
particular,  against  the  cities  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  Vin- 
cennes  and  Terre  Haute,  Indiana.  The  pursuance  of  this  short 
sighted  policy  not  only  hindered  the  flow  of  capital  into  the 
state  and  retarded  the  industrial  and  commercial  development 
of  certain  sections,  but  it  caused  retaliatory  measures  to  be 

[220J 


13 

adopted  by  neighboring  states.  The  policy  met  with  especi 
ally  strong  opposition  from  the  residents  of  the  southern  part 
of  the  state  and  several  conventions  were  called  to  protest 
against  its  continuance.  Two  special  sessions  of  the  legislature 
were  called  to  deal  with  the  matter,  but  so  strong  was  the  in 
fluence  exerted  by  the  supporters  of  this  plan  that  it  was  not 
until  1854  that  a  more  liberal  policy  prevailed. 

In  spite  of  this  policy,  however,  railway  building  in  Illinois 
in  the  early  '50's  proceeded  with  unparalleled  rapidity.  As 
already  indicated,  there  were  in  1852  only  95  miles  of  railroad 
in  operation  in  the  state.  By  February  16,  1856,  there  were 
2410  miles  in  operation.1  Of  this  amount  only  about  three 
hundred  miles  were  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state.  From 
1835  to  1869,  inclusive,  413  railway  charters  were  granted  by 
the  Illinois  legislature  and  the  great  majority  of  these  were 
framed  after  1854. 

Of  the  railway  building  of  this  period,  by  far  the  most  not 
able  undertaking  was  that  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad. 
This  enterprise  has  an  importance  not  confined  to  the  state  of 
Illinois,  since  it  marks  the  first  important  step  in  the  policy  of 
securing  Congressional  land  grants  in  aid  of  railroads.  Small 
beginnings  of  this  policy  had  already  been  made  in  Illinois,  as 
well  as  in  other  states.  In  1835  an  act  of  Congress  authorized 
the  legislature  of  Illinois,  if  it  saw  fit,  to  use  the  land  granted 
in  1827  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  Illinois-Michigan 
Canal  for  a  railroad  instead  of  a  canal.  Small  grants  of  land 
had  also  been  made  by  Congress  to  several  southern  states  in 
aid  of  railway  construction.  Although  several  citizens  have 
claimed  the  credit  of  having  originated  the  Illinois  Central 
railway  project,  the  credit  for  having  pushed  the  land  grant 
through  Congress  undoubtedly  belongs  to  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 
The  desire  to  have  a  north  and  south  line  running  the  full 
length  of  the  state  had  long  been  a  pet  scheme  of  the  people 
of  Illinois.  The  internal  improvement  plan  of  1837  had 

i  Chicago  Daily  Press,  February  16,  1836.     See  also  p.  18. 

[221] 


14 

this  as  its  main  item  and,  after  the  failure  of  that  ambitions 
program,  another  attempt  was  made  in  1843  to  provide  for  such 
a  line  by  chartering  the  Great  Western  Uailroad  Company. 
Private  capital,  unaided  by  government  subsidies,  appeared 
unwilling,  however,  to  undertake  the  project  and,  beginning 
with  1848,  Douglas  worked  unremittingly  to  secure  Congres 
sional  aid  for  the  road.  Finally,  on  September  26,  1850,  Con 
gress  passed  the  act  which  gave  to  the  State  of  Illinois  the 
right  of  way  250  feet  in  width  through  the  public  lands  and 
also  the  alternate  sections  of  land,  six  sections  deep,  along  the 
proposed  route, — an  amount  of  land  aggregating  nearly  2,600,000 
acres.  The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  was  incorpo 
rated  in  January, 1851, for  the  purpose  of  building  the  road,  and 
the  lands  granted  by  Congress  to  the  state  were  conferred  on 
the  company  in  return  for  a  promise  on  its  part  to  pay  annu 
ally  a  tax  of  seven  per  cent,  of  its  gross  earnings  into  the 
State  Treasury.  This  was  to  be  in  lieu  of  all  other  state  and 
local  taxes.  The  company  which  received  the  charter  and  the 
land  grant  was  composed  of  New  York  and  Boston  capitalists 
of  high  financial  reputation  but  the  capital  for  the  enterprise 
came,  for  the  most  part,  from  England.  The  bill  incorporating 
the  company  was  hastily  passed  by  the  legislature  and  was  in 
opposition  to  the  wishes  of  many  who  believed  that  the  state 
should  have  retained  the  title  to  the  lands  and  should  have 
constructed  and  operated  the  railroad.  Without  discussing  in 
this  place  the  relative  merits  of  the  two  plans,  or  seeking  to 
justify  the  general  principle  of  governmental  subsidies  in  aid 
of  private  railway  corporations,  it  may  be  said  in  all  fairness, 
that  in  this  case  the  Congressional  land  grant  proved  advan 
tageous  to  all  parties  concerned.  By  withholding  from  the 
market  for  two  years  the  sections  of  land  not  granted  along 
the  right  of  way,  the  Federal  Government  was  able  to  dispose  of 
these  lands  at  an  average  price  four  times  as  large  as  that  at 
which  they  were  offered  prior  to  making  the  grant.  It  also 
fixed  the  compensation  for  carrying  the  mails  over  the  road 
and  reserved  the  right  to  transport  its  troops  and  munitions  of 

[222] 


15 

war  free  of  cost.  To  the  state  of  Illinois  the  land  grant  and 
the  building  of  the  railroad  added  150,000  in  population  within 
a  very  few  years  and  the  development  of  the  state's  resources 
was  greatly  hastened.  Furthermore,  the  contract  for  the  pay 
ment  of  the  gross  earnings  tax  has  proved  very  advantageous 
to  the  state,  and,  judging  from  the  market  price  of  its  stock, 
has  not  seriously  affected  the  prosperity  of  the  company. 

Several  other  attempts  were  made  to  secure  Congressional 
aid  for  Illinois  railroads  between  1837  and  1854,  but  they 
proved  fruitless. 

The  financial  disasters  resulting  from  the  failure  of  the  in 
ternal  improvement  plan  of  1837  led  the  framers  of  the  Consti 
tution  of  1848  to  insert  a  clause  in  that  instrument,  forbidding 
the  General  Assembly  to  give  the  credit  of  the  state  in 
any  manner  in  aid  of  any  individual,  association  or  corporation. 
The  people  were  soon  convinced,  however,  that  public  aid  of 
some  sort  was  necessary,  if  railway  building  was  to  proceed 
rapidly.  The  state  government  being  estopped  from  giving 
direct  aid,  the  people  turned  to  the  local  sub-divisions.  In  1849 
the  legislature,  in  an  amendment  to  the  general  incorporation 
act,  provided  that  any  county  might,  upon  vote  of  its  citizens, 
subscribe  for  shares  in  the  capital  stock  of  any  such  corpora 
tion  to  an  amount  not  exceeding  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
Later  acts  extended  the  power  to  boards  of  supervisors,  where 
the  township  organization  prevailed,  and  to  councils  of  munic 
ipalities.  An  attempt  to  increase  this  power  of  the  local  gov 
ernments  to  aid  railroads  was  made  in  1869  by  the  passage  of 
the  so-called  "tax-grabbing"  law.  The  features  of  this  law 
and  the  results  of  its  passage  are  described  in  subsequent 
pages.  We  need  here  only  to  mention  the  fact  that  the  en 
couragement  which  these  laws  afforded  to  counties,  townships 
and  municipalities  to  bond  themselves  in  aid  of  railroads  led  to 
the  adoption  of  many  hastily-passed  and  ill-considered  meas 
ures  for  furnishing  financial  aid  to  various  companies.  In  some 
instances  the  aid  thus  rendered  proved  of  advantage  to  all 
concerned,  but  in  other  cases  it  simply  resulted  in  saddling  a 

[223] 


16 

heavy  debt  upon  the  local  governments  without  yielding  any 
corresponding  benefit  whatever. 

There  remains  for  brief  consideration  in  this  introductory 
chapter  the  early  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  state  to  regulate 
the  rates  of  toll  upon  the  railroads,  in  order  to  prevent  extor 
tionate  charges  and  discriminations.  Until  1849  complaints  of 
this  character  were  infrequent,  but  about  that  time  it  began  to 
be  charged  that  the  railroads  were  not  only  making  extortion 
ate  charges  for  transportation,  but  that  they  were,  in  this  way, 
making  profits  in  excess  of  those  in  other  industries.  The 
Committee  on  Internal  Improvements  in  its  report  to  the  legis 
lature  in  1849  recommended  the  establishment  of  maximum 
rates  in  every  charter  to  be  granted  in  the  future.  This  recom 
mendation  found  approval  in  the  general  incorporation  act  of 
that  year  which  fixed  the  maximum  passenger  rates  on  roads 
chartered  under  its  provisions  to  three  cents  a  mile.  The  act 
further  provided  that  for  roads  already  chartered  the  legisla 
ture  might  alter  the  tolls,  provided  such  alterations  did  not  re 
duce  the  profits  to  less  than  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  capital 
stock.  The  roads  protested  against  the  operation  of  this  sec 
tion,  claiming  it  to  be  a  violation  of  their  charter  contracts, 
and  the  people  began  to  realize  the  difficulties  of  rate  regula 
tion  which  the  loosely  drawn  charters  had  imposed  on  them. 
However,  the  demand  for  legislative  action  to  control  the  rate- 
making  power  of  the  roads  continued  to  grow  louder  and  more 
emphatic  throughout  the  two  succeeding  decades.  This  pro 
duced  some  effect  in  the  requirement,  inserted  in  some  of  the 
charters  granted,  that  the  roads  should  establish  and  maintain 
a  schedule  of  uniform  rates  for  both  passengers  and  freight. 
Meanwhile  railway  consolidation  which  had  been  proceeding 
with  great  rapidity  during  the  '50's  and  '60's  was  causing  alarm 
and  was  being  denounced  as  being  "in  restraint  of  trade.7'  So 
great,indeed,  was  the  fear  of  monopolistic  power  being  secured 
in  this  way,  that  in  the  Constitution  of  1870  a  clause  was  in 
serted  forbidding  the  consolidation  of  parallel  or  competing 
lines.  Public  opinion  seemed  to  be  divided,  however,  as  to  the 

[224] 


17 

right  of  the  legislature  to  modify  the  rates  of  toll  on  the  roads 
already  chartered,  and  between  1858  and  1869  every  attempt  to 
pass  a  general  law  fixing  rates  or  for  the  prevention  of  dis 
criminations  failed  of  passage  in  the  legislature.  The  first 
general  law  of  this  character  was  not  passed  until  March  10, 
1869.  It  limited  the  charges  on  the  roads  of  the  state  to 
''reasonable  rates,"  but  did  not  attempt  to  define  what  was 
reasonable.  On  the  other  hand,  the  law  stated:  "That  the 
company  shall  fix  a  reasonable  and  uniform  rate  of  tolls  does 
not  mean  that  one  road  shall  charge  the  same  as  any  other 
road,  or  that  the  same  rate  for  different  roads  is  required." 
The  act  thus  cautiously  worded  proved  ineffective,  and  no  at 
tention  whatever  was  paid  to  its  provisions  by  any  road  in  the 
state.  The  real  struggle  for  securing  effective  public  control 
over  the  railroads  in  Illinois  began  in  the  Constitutional  Con 
vention  of  1870. 

The  railway  history  of  Illinois  may  thus  conveniently 
be  divided  into  jive  periods,  each  period  having  its  own  peculiar 
characteristics. 

The  first  period  (1829-1836)  is  one  of  agitation,  having  no 
practical  results  other  than  the  construction  of  a  few  unimport 
ant  tramways  and  the  chartering  of  several  roads  which  were 
either  not  built,  or  whose  construction  was  postponed  until 
later  years.  In  this  period  the  building  of  canals  aroused  more 
enthusiasm  than  did  railway  projects. 

The  second  period  (1837-1889)  witnesses  the  effort  of  the 
state  to  construct  and  operate  its  own  roads,  an  effort  which 
fails  utterly  after  having  brought  about  the  insolvency  of  the 
state  government. 

The  third  period  (1840-1869)  marks  a  return  to  the  plan  of 
incorporated  private  companies  aided  in  some  cases  by  Federal 
land  grants  and  in  others  by  the  bond  issues  of  counties,  town 
ships  and  municipalities.  It  is  a  period  of  rapid  construction, 
but  one  in  which  later  difficulties  are  engendered,  owing  to  the 
loosely  drawn  charters  arid  the  reckless  financial  aid  furnished 
by  the  local  governments. 


18 

The  fourth  period  (1870-1876)  is  characterized  by  the 
"  Granger7'  agitation,  and  by  the  efforts  of  the  people  to  regu 
late  railway  rates  and  to  prevent  unjust  discriminations  by  the 
establishment  of  the  Railroad  and  Warehouse  Commission. 
During  this  period  the  struggle  for  control  is  being  carried  on 
in  the  State  and  Federal  courts  and  results  in  the  complete 
triumph  of  the  policy  of  state  regulation. 

The  fifth  period  (1877-present  time)  is  a  period  of  calm  in 
which  the  principle  of  public  control  is  recognized  by  the 
roads,  and  the  work  of  the  Railroad  and  Warehouse  Commis 
sion  is  carried  on  without  interference  on  the  part  of  the  rail 
way  managers.  It  is  the  importance  which  is  attached  to 
these  later  periods  which  furnishes  the  interest  to  the  follow 
ing  pages. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS,  M.  B.  HAMMOND. 

March  1,  1904. 


[226] 


SECTION  I 

RAILWAY   CONDITIONS   IN   1870   AND   THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   PRO 
VISIONS  CONCERNING  RAILROADS. 


The  twenty  years  preceding  1870  had  witnessed  a  rapid  de 
velopment  of  railroads  in  Illinois.  In  1851  this  commonwealth 
had  only  one  hundred  and  eleven  miles  of  railroads,and  was  the 
eighteenth  state  in  the  Union  with  respect  to  railway  mileage. 
By  January  1,  1871  the  number  of  miles  had  increased  to  4,823 
an  amount  in  excess  of  that  of  any  other  state.1  The  same 
period  saw  a  rapid  increase  in  the  population  and  wealth  of  the 
state,  an  increase  which  was  greatest  in  those  sections  through 
which  the  railroads  had  been  built.  The  people  of  Illinois  had 
soon  realized  the  aid  which  might  be  rendered  by  the  railroads 
in  industrial  development  and  the  demand  for  increased  rail 
way  facilities  came  from  all  parts  of  the  state.  * 

So  great  was  this  eagerness  for  the  extension  of  the  roads 
that  hasty  and  ill-considered  means  had  of  ten-times  been 
adopted  for  the  acceleration  of  the  movement.  Towns  and 
counties  had  bonded  themselves  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of 
new  railroads  proposing  to  build  through  them  and  individual 
citizens  in  many  cases  went  so  far  as  to  mortgage  their  proper 
ty  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  the  roads.3  By  the  granting  of 
special  privileges  in  charters  the  state  legislature,  also,  did  all 
in  its  power  to  hasten  the  construction  of  new  lines  of  road.4 
From  1850  to  1870  charters  had  been  granted  to  three  hundred 
and  twenty-two  railway  companies.5  The  close  of  the  Civil  War 

1  H.  V.  Poor,  "Manual  of  Railroads  of  the  United  States,"  1871 -'72,  p.  XXXII. 

2  John  Moses,  -'Illinois,  Historical  and  Statistical,"  11:1057-8. 

3  Ibid.,  1058. 

4  Davidson  and  Stuve,  "History  of  Illinois."  1020. 

5  Laws  of  Illinois,  1851-1869. 

[227J 


20 

had  left  idle  a  class  of  men  who  were  particularly  attracted  to 
the  field  of  railway  enterprise.1  All  of  these  causes  had  com 
bined  to  produce  an  abnormal  development  of  railroads. 

It  was  inevitable  that  this  over  development  of  the  roads 
should  lead  in  many  cases  to  failure.  As  a  result  of  this  fail 
ure  the  people  saw  that  their  hopes  of  the  benefits  to  be  de 
rived  from  the  building  of  the  roads  were,  in  most  cases,  not  to 
be  realized.  The  profits  with  which  the  holders  of  the  railway 
stock  were  expecting  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  debt  which  they 
had  incurred  to  buy  this  stock  were  not  forthcoming.  Further 
than  this,  the  stock  itself  was  rendered  valueless  by  the  failure 
of  the  roads  and  often-times  the  farmer,  with  nothing  to  com 
pensate  him,  was  obliged  to  see  the  foreclosure  of  the  mort 
gage  which  he  had  placed  upon  his  farm  to  enable  him  to  buy 
railway  stock.  The  people  were  further  dissatisfied  with  the 
fact  that  the  roads  were  using  up  in  the  payment  of  large  sal 
aries  to  railway  officials  the  profits  which  the  public  had  expect 
ed  to  share.  The  citizens  were  also  burdened  with  the  heavy  tax 
which  was  necessary  to  liquidate  the  bonded  indebtedness  of 
counties  and  towns.2 

The  chief  cause  of  the  public  dissatisfaction,  however,  is  to 
be  found  in  the  management  of  the  roads.  Each  company  ar 
ranged  its  rates  with  a  view  to  securing  as  large  a  share  of  the 
traffic  as  possible  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  evils  of  discrimi 
nations  between  places  and  persons  arose.  Rates  at  compet 
ing  points  were  made  so  low  that  they  were  not  sufficient  to 
pay  the  cost  of  transportation  and  the  loss  was  made  up  by  the 
charging  of  exorbitant  prices  at  non-competitive  points.  Per 
sonal  discriminations  were  also  frequent.  The  absence 
of  any  regular  tariffs  made  it  necessary  for  each  per 
son  to  make  a  separate  bargain  with  the  company,  and  there 
were,  as  a  consequence,  great  variations  in  the  rates  charged  to 


1  Davidson  and  Stave,  op.  cit.  1020. 

2  Moses,  op.  cit.  11:1058. 

[228] 


21 

different  customers.1  Mr.  Pierce,  one  of  the  delegates  to  the 
Constitutional  convention  of  1870,  declared  that  the  railroads 
were  charging  exorbitant  rates  and  were  making  discrimina 
tions,  citing  as  an  instance  the  fact  that,  in  shipping  lumber 
from  Chicago  to  Springfield,  it  was  cheaper  to  ship  it  to  St. 
Louis  and  from  there  to  Springfield  than  to  ship  it  direct  to 
Springfield  from  Chicago.  He  also  asserted  that  the  people  of 
Illinois  were  being  discriminated  against  in  favor  of  the  people 
of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Kansas  and  Nebraska.2  Although  his  de 
scription  of  the  situation  may  have  been  overdrawn,  it  is  cer 
tain  that  the  practice  of  making  unjustifiable  discriminations 
was  very  general  and  that  it  was  having  in  many  instances  a  dis 
astrous  effect. 

In  addition  to  these  grave  evils  of  railway  management  in 
the  state  there  was  one  which,  although  it  worked  no  consider 
able  hardship  to  the  patrons  of  the  roads,  did  much  to  aggra 
vate  them  and  to  excite  their  hostility.  This  was  the  attitude 
which  was  assumed  by  the  officials  and  employees  of  the  roads 
in  their  dealings  with  the  people.  Little  attempt  was  made  by 
these  officials  to  furnish  the  traveling  and  shipping  public  the 
most  satisfactory  service  which  it  was  in  their  power  to  give. 
The  courteous  treatment  of  the  customers  of  a  road  is  a  matter 
of  vast  importance  to  the  avoidance  of  friction  between  the 
roads  and  the  people  and  the  lack  of  a  proper  consideration  of 
this  point  is  stated  by  C.  F.  Adams3  to  have  been  one  of  the  two 
great  causes  of  the  hostility  to  the  roads  which  marked  the 
Granger  movement. 

Two  acts  of  the  state  legislature  in  1869,  which  served  as  a 
good  illustration  of  the  lack  of  conservatism  which  marked  the 
action  of  the  legislature  at  that  time,  furnished  a  disturbing 
element  of  considerable  importance  in  the  railway  situation  in 

1  A.  E.  Paine,  "The  Granger  Movement  in    Illinois,"    manuscript    thesis,   Uni 
versity  of  Illinois,  1900,  12. 

2  Debates  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1870,   11:1646. 

3  "The  Granger  Movement",  North  American  Review,    CXX:^98-4O4;  Paine  ofi. 
cit.  1 8,  19. 

[229! 


22 

1870.  These  acts  were  known  as  the  "tax  grabbing"  law  and 
the  "Lake  Front"  law.  The  first  of  these  laws1  provided  that 
all  counties  and  towns  which  had  bonded  themselves  to  aid  in 
the  construction  of  railroads  should  receive  for  ten  years 
all  of  the  state  taxes  on  the  increased  assessment  over 
the  assessments  of  1868,  and  all  of  the  taxes  which  were 
raised  during  the  same  period  from  the  railroads  in 
benefit  of  which  the  debt  was  created,  except,  in  both 
cases,  the  state  school  tax  and  the  two  mill  tax.  The  sums 
thus  received  were  to  be  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  bonds. 
The  effect  of  this  act  was  to  increase  greatly  the  amount  of 
local  aid  voted  to  railway  companies.  By  the  "Lake  Front" 
act2,  a  portion  of  the  lake  front  in  Chicago,  south  of  the  river 
mouth,  sufficient  to  construct  miles  of  dockage  and  outside 
harbor  was  given  to  the  Illinois  Central  and  Chicago,  Burling 
ton  and  Quincy  railway  companies,  together  with  some  land 
for  depot  purposes  within  the  city.  In  return  for  these  grants 
the  city  was  to  receive  $800,000,  a  sum  which  fell  short  of  the 

actual  value  of  the  property  by  nearly  $2,000,000.3  The  harm 
ful  effects  of  these  two  radical  measures  which  provided  such 
generous  assistance  to  the  roads  will  be  seen  later  when  the 
policy  of  the  state  changed  from  one  fostering  the  railroads  to 
one  restricting  them. 

The  evils  from  the  over-development  of  the  roads,  and  the 
discriminations  and  high  charges,  some  justifiable  but  many  not 
so;  the  hardships  resulting  from  the  too  liberal  use  made  of 
public  and  private  credit  in  aid  of  the  roads;  the  non-concilia 
tory  action  of  the  managers  of  the  railroads;  the  evils  at 
tendant  upon  absentee  ownership;  and  the  radical  attitude  of 
the  state  legislature,  all  combined  to  produce  in  Illinois  by 
1870  a  state  of  affairs  which  clearly  could  not  long  endure.  Dis 
satisfaction  was  general  throughout  the  state  and  was  especially 
keen  in  the  rural  communities.  The  feeling  prevailed  that  the 

1  Public  Laws  of  Illinois,  1869,  316-21. 

2  Ibid.,  245-8;  Davidson  and  Stuve,  op.  cit.  1021. 

3  Illinois  House  Journal,  1869,  111:523-4. 

[230] 


23 

previous  state  action  with  regard  to  the  roads  had  been  ill  con 
sidered  and  that  the  necessity  had  now  arisen  for  the  state  to 
take  some  positive  action  to  curb  the  growing  power  of  these 
corporations.  That  the  attitude  of  the  people  toward  the  roads 
was  the  result  of  the  Granger  movement  cannot  be  maintained, 
for  in  1870  this  movement  was  still  in  its  inception.  The  first 
grange  was  not  organized  in  the  state  until  1868  and  the  state 
organization  was  not  effected  until  1872.  The  same  forces, 
however,  which  were  to  give  the  Granger  movement  the 
strength  which  it  attained  in  Illinois  were  working  to  intensify 
popular  opposition  to  the  roads  and  in  this  way  a  close  relation 
existed  between  the  Granger  movement  as  such  and  the  atti 
tude  of  the  people  toward  the  railroads  at  this  time.1  Such 
was  the  condition  of  public  opinion  when  the  Constitutional 
convention  met  in  1870. 

The  delegates  to  the  convention  seem  to  have  been  almost 
unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  some  measures  restrictive  of  the 
railroads  were  necessary  and  they  felt  that  public  sentiment 
would  support  them  in  action  along  these  lines.  Mr.  Snyder, 
a  delegate  to  the  convention  from  Saint  Clair  county,  remarked 
that  "if  there  is  any  one  question  on  which  there  is  unanimity  in 
this  state,  it  is  on  restricting  these  railroads." 2  But,  although 
it  was  very  generally  agreed  that  there  was  a  necessity  for  re 
strictive  measures  there  was  wide  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
method  of  restriction  which  should  be  adopted.  The  chief  ques 
tion  to  be  settled  was  as  to  the  power  which  the  state  possessed 
to  adopt  measures  limiting  railway  charges.3  On  the  one  side 
it  was  claimed  that  the  fixing  of  charges  by  the  state  legislature 
was  an  illegal  violation  of  the  rights  granted  in  the  charters  to 
the  railroads,  and  the  decision  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case 
was  cited  to  substantiate  this  claim.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
argued  that  if  the  railway  corporation  was  beyond  public  regu 
lation,  it  had  become  superior  to  the  state  which  had  given  it 
birth,  a  condition  of  affairs  which  was  impossible.  The  belief 

1  Cf.  Paine,  op.  cit.  31. 

2  Debates  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  11:1770. 

3  ibid.,  II,  1637-64;  1708-23. 

[23?] 


24 

in  an  extensive  power  of  the  state  to  regulate  the  roads  was  the 
general  one  among  the  delegates  and  after  an  extended  debate 
the  convention  incorporated  in  the  Constitution  certain  pro 
visions  concerning  railroads  which  were  intended  to  define  the 
power  of  the  state  over  the  corporations. 

Article  XL  of  the  constitution  provides  that  no  corpora 
tion  shall  be  created  by  special  laws ;  that  the  railroads  shall 
make  public  the  amount  of  their  capital  stock  and  the  names 
of  the  stockholders,  together  with  the  amount  of  their  assets  and 
liabilities ;  that  the  directors  of  each  road  shall  make  a  swrorn 
annual  report  to  some  officers  designated  by  law  concerning 
such  matters  as  may  be  prescribed  by  law  ;  that  consolidations 
of  competing  lines  shall  not  be  made  ;  that  the  General  Assem 
bly  shall  from  time  to  time  pass  laws  establishing  reasonable 
maximum  passenger  and  freight  rates ;  that  stocks  or  bonds 
shall  not  be  issued  except  for  money,  labor  or  property  actually 
received ;  and,  finally,  that  lawTs  shall  be  passed  to  correct 
abuses  and  to  prevent  unjust  discrimination  and  extortion  in 
freight  and  passenger  rates  and  to  enforce  such  laws  by  ade 
quate  penalties  to  the  extent,  if  necessary,  of  forfeiture  of  rail 
way  property  and  franchises.  A  resolution  was  presented  in 
the  convention  providing  for  the  insertion  in  the  constitution 
of  a  clause  establishing  a  railroad  and  warehouse  commission 
but  it  failed  of  adoption. l 

Thus  through  her  fundamental  law  Illinois  took  an  ad 
vanced  position  with  regard  to  railway  control. 2  The  constitu-* 
tion  prepared  the  way  for  the  institution  of  some  system  of  reg 
ulation,  leaving  to  the  legislature  the  establishment  of  the  ma 
chinery  through  which  regulation  was  to  be  accomplished.  It 
even  went  so  far  as  to  command  the  legislature  to  pass  restric 
tive  legislation,  an  order  for  which  there  was  no  means  of  ex 
ecution  provided.  The  legislature,  however,  accepted  the  duty 
laid  upon  upon  it  by  the  constitution  and  enacted  laws  regula 
ting  the  railroads,  fully  as  advanced  in  character  as  were  the 
provisions  of  the  constitution  which  inspired  them. 

1  Debates,  II,  1648. 

2  Paine,  op.  cit.  20.  [232] 


SECTION  II. 

THE  RESTRICTIVE  LEGISLATION  OF  1871  AND  THE  WORK  OF  THE 

FIRST  COMMISSION. 


In  the  debate  on  the  adoption  of  the  railway  article  of  the 
Constitution  of  1870,  it  was  declared  by  one  of  the  delegates1 
that  the  people  expected  this  article  to  inaugurate  a  fight 
with  the  roads.  The  constitutional  provisions  opened  the  way 
for  positive  legislative  enactment,  and  the  expectation  of  the 
people  was  soon  realized. 2 

In  his  message  of  January  4,  1871,  to  the  Twenty-Seventh 
General  Assembly,  the  first  to  be  held  after  the  adoption  of  the 
new  constitution,  Governor  Palmer  considered  the  railway 
problem  at  some  length. 3  He  declared  that  the  claim  that  the 
state  legislature  did  not  have  the  power  to  regulate  railway 
rates  was  equivalent  to  the  assertion  that  "a  power  had  grown 
up  in  the  state  greater  Ithan  the  state  itself".  In  considering 
the  need  for  state  intervention,  Governor  Palmer  took  an  ad 
vanced  position  in  regard  to  the  effects  of  railway  competition. 
"Those  who  deny  the  necessity  of  state  intervention",  he  said, 
"insist  that  all  of  the  evils  of  excessive  tariffs  and  unjust  dis 
criminations  in  rates  for  transportation  will  be  ultimately  cor 
rected  by  the  competition  of  different  lines  of  railways  in  their 
efforts  to  control  business.  Competition  is  far  more  expensive 
than  direct  methods  of  legal  control.  The  grossest  oppressions 
that  burden  the  people  grow  out  of  the  fierce  and  exhaust 
ing  railway  competition  at  important  points,  where  their  inter 
ests  come  in  conflict ;  and  one  of  the  strongest  reasons  for  the 

1  Washburn,  of  the  sixth  representative  district. 

2  Paine,  op.  cit.,  p.  21. 

3  Senate  Journal,  1871,  19-22. 

[233] 


26 

interference  of  the  Legislature  to  control  the  management  of 
railway  lines  is,  that  the  burdens  of  the  useless  competition  of 
different  lines  are  thrown  upon  intermediate  points,  where  corn- 
petition  is  impossible.  Deprive  railroad  corporations  of  the  pow 
er  to  impose  discretionary  rates  upon  their  traffic,  and  the  busi 
ness  community  would  suffer  far  less  from  the  selfish  contests 
of  competing  lines,  that  in  their  effect  unsettle  values,  to  the 
confusion  of  business  and  the  disappointment  of  the  most  pru 
dent  commercial  calculations."  In  regard  to  the  difficulties  of 
the  railway  problem,  Governor  Palmer  added,  "The  difficulties 
that  occur  to  my  mind  do  not  relate  to  the  power  of  the  state 
to  enact  and  enforce  proper  laws,  but  they  grow  out  of  the  com 
plex  nature  of  the  subject.  There  are  conflicting  interests  to  be 
reconciled  and  adjusted,  and  nothing  within  the  sphere  of  gov 
ernmental  action  requires  more  delicacy  of  management  than 
what  is  termed  the  railway  problem." 

The  Twenty-Seventh  General  Assembly  did  not  hesitate  to 
follow  the  requirements  of  the  constitution,  and  six  acts,  de 
signed  to  institute  state  regulation  of  the  railroads,  were  passed 
at  this  session.1  These  acts  contained  provisions,  (1)  for  the  in 
corporation  of  railway  companies,  (2)  limiting  railway  consoli 
dation,  (3)  regulating  the  receiving,  transportation  and  delivery 
of  grain,  (4)  prohibiting  unjust  discriminations  and  extortion 
in  freight  rates,  (5)  fixing  reasonable  maximum  rates  for  pass 
enger  traffic,  and,  finally,  (6)  establishing  a  board  of  railroad 
and  warehouse  commissioners. 

The  general  incorporation  act  prescribed  and  defined  the 
duties  of  railway  corporations,  and  limited  their  powers  by 
expressly  reserving  to  the  general  assembly  the  power  to  pre 
vent  unjust  discriminations  and  extortions  and  to  fix  maximum 
freight  and  passenger  rates.2 

The  act  "to  provide  for  changes  in  incorporated  com 
panies"  granted  to  railway  companies  the  right  to  consolidate, 
but  provided  that  consolidation  should  not  take  place  between 

1  Laws  of  Illinois,  1871-72. 

2  Ibid.,  625-34. 

[234] 


27 

parallel  or  competing  lines.1  A.S  to  what  were  to  be  considered 
parallel  or  competing  lines  the  act  made  no  statement.  This 
provision  of  the  law,  following  as  it  does  a  similar  clause  in 
the  constitution,2  is  interesting  as  it  reveals  the  general  opinion 
of  the  time  as  to  the  effect  of  railway  competition.  Notwith 
standing  the  opinion  expressed  by  Governor  Palmer,  competi 
tion  seems  to  have  been  considered  an  effective  remedy  for 
railway  evils  instead  of  one  of  the  primary  sources  of  some  of 
the  grossest  of  those  evils. 

The  act  regulating  the  receiving,  transportation,  and  de 
livery  of  grain  forbade  discrimination  between  shippers  and 
warehouses  in  the  handling  of  grain. 

The  act  to  prevent  unjust  discriminations  and  extortion  in 
freight  rates 3  provided  "that  no  railroad  corporation  organized 
or  doing  business  in  this  state  *  *  *  shall  charge  or  col 
lect  for  the  transportation  of  goods,  merchandise  or  property 
on  its  said  road,  for  any  distance,  the  same  nor  any  larger  or 
greater  amount  as  toll  or  compensation  than  is  at  the  same 
time  charged  or  collected  for  the  transportation  of  similar 
quantities  of  the  same  class  of  goods,  merchandise  or  property 
over  a  greater  distance  upon  the  same  road,  nor  shall  such 
corporation  charge  different  rates  for  receiving,  handling  or 
delivering  freights  at  different  points  on  its  road,  or  roads  con 
nected  therewith  which  it  has  a  right  to  use.  Nor  shall  such 
railroad  corporation  charge  or  collect  for  the  transportation  of 
goods,  merchandise  or  property  over  any  portion  of  its  road,  a 
greater  amount  as  toll  or  compensation  than  shall  be  charged 
or  collected  by  it  for  the  transportation  of  similar  quantities 
of  the  same  class  of  goods,  merchandise  or  property  over  any 
other  portion  of  its  road  of  equal  distance."  The  provisions  of 
this  act  are  thus  seen  to  be  more  sweeping  than  the  provisions 
of  the  "long  and  short  haul  clause"  of  the  interstate  commerce 


1  Laws  of  Illinois,  1871-72,  487-90. 

2  Art.  ix,  Sec.  ii. 

3  Laws  of  Illinois,  635-6. 

[235] 


28 

act  of  1887. 1  The  Illinois  statute  makes  the  charging  of  the 
same  or  greater  sum  for  the  shorter  distance  than  is  charged 
for  a  longer  illegal  under  all  circumstances,  while  the  federal 
law  only  makes  such  a  charge  illegal  when  the  shorter  distance 
is  included  within  the  longer  and  the  haul  is  in  the  same 
direction. 

The  act  concerning  freight  rates  further  provided2  that  no 
increase  should  be  made  in  the  rate  then  existing  between  any 
two  points,  in  following  out  the  provisions  of  the  act  and  that 
the  rates  on  any  day  should  not  be  higher  than  the  rates  which 
existed  on  the  corresponding  day  of  the  year  1870.  In  cases 
where  the  law  was  violated,  the  party  aggrieved  was  entitled 
to  collect  in  an  action  of  debt  a  sum  not  exceeding  one  thou 
sand  dollars  and  costs. 3 

Although  the  aim  of  this  act,  the  prevention  of  unjust 
discrimination  in  freight  rates  was  a  laudable  one,  the  act  was 
so  constructed  that  it  worked  injustice  to  the  roads.  Condi 
tions  may  very  easily  be  so  different  in  different  parts  of  a  road 
that  a  reasonable  charge  for  a  certain  distance  at  one  place 
may  be  unreasonably  high  at  another,  and  a  discrimination 
by  which  more  is  charged  for  a  shorter  distance  on  one  part  of 
the  line  than  is  charged  for  a  longer  distance  on  another  part 
may  be  perfectly  just.  The  provision  that  rates  should  not  on 
any  day  be  higher  than  the  corresponding  rates  on  the  same 
day  of  1870  was  also  extremely  unwise  as  the  year  1870  pre 
sented  some  astonishing  fluctuations  in  freight  rates.  In  1869 
and  1870  freight  rates  between  New  York  and  Chicago  varied 
from  $5  to  $37  per  ton  and  between  New  York  and  St.  Louis 
there  were  variations  of  from  $7  to  $46  per  ton.*  A  worse  year 
to  serve  as  a  standard  could  not  have  been  chosen. 

The  act  which  had  for  its  object  the  control  of  passenger 
rates1  proposed  to  accomplish  this  by  a  classification  of  the 

1  24  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  379-387,  Sec.  4. 

2  Sec.  3. 

3  Sec.  5. 

4  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1871-72.     This  report  is   published  in  the  Reports 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  Illinois,  1871,  II:  423-596. 

[236] 


29 

roads  according  to  their  gross  earnings.    The  roads  were  divided 

into  four  classes  as  follows: 

Class  A — Those  whose  gross  annual   earnings  per  mile  were 

$10,000  or  over. 
Class  B — Those  whose  gross  annual   earnings  per  mile  were 

between  $8,000  and  $10,000. 
Class  C — Those  whose  gross  annual   earnings   per  mile  were 

between  $4,000  and  $8,000. 
Class  D — Those  whose  gross  annual  earnings  were  less  than 

$4,000  per  mile. 

The  act  provided  that  the  roads  in  these  classes  were  not  to 
charge  for  the  transportation  of  passengers  more  than  2-J,  3,  4 
and  5|  cents  per  mile  respectively,  and  required  each  road  to 
keep  posted  a  table  of  distances  between  points  on  its  line  to 
gether  with  a  statement  of  the  class  to  which  the  road  be 
longed.  Thus  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  state  a 
classification  of  the  roads  with  respect  to  the  rates  to  be 
charged  was  made.  Although  the  method  of  classification 
adopted,  one  based  on  the  gross  earnings  of  the  companies,  may 
not  have  been  the  best  possible,  the  legislature  in  providing 
any  form  of  classification  took  an  advanced  position  for  the 
time. 

The  legislative  measure,  however,  that  was  to  have  the 
most  far-reaching  effect  was  the  act  establishing  the  railroad 
and  warehouse  commission.  This  act3  provided  that  the  gov 
ernor  of  the  state  was  to  appoint  within  twenty  days  of  the 
passage  of  the  act  a  board  of  three  commissioners,  no  one  of 
whom  was  to  have  any  connection  with  a  railroad  company  or 
be  interested  in  any  stock  or  property  of  a  company.  To  this 
board  of  commissioners  the  law  required  every  railway  com 
pany  doing  business  in  the  state  to  make  an  annual  report. 

Forty-one  particulars  on  which  definite  report  was  to  be  made 
are  specified.  These  embrace  a  very  full  statement  of  the  rail- 

1  Laws  of  Illinois,  1871-72,  640-1. 

2  Ibid.,  618-625. 

[237] 


30 

road's  business  and  of  its  running  arrangements.  Among  other 
things  each  road  was  required  to  report  on  the  a  mount  of  its  cap 
ital  stock,  by  whom  it  was  owned,  and  the  amount  of  cash  paid 
the  company  on  the  original  capital  stock;  the  names  and  resi 
dences  of  its  officials;  the  amount  of  its  assets  and  liabilities 
and  of  its  bonded  and  floating  debt;  the  value  of  all  its  property; 
the  mileage  of  the  road  and  the  mileage  of  freight  and  passen 
ger  trains;  the  monthly  earnings  and  expenses  from  passenger 
and  freight  transportation;  expenses  for  improvement;  passen 
ger  and  freight  rates  and  a  copy  of  all  its  published  schedules, 
whether  or  not  the  published  rates  were  followed;  and  the  run 
ning  arrangements  with  express  and  other  railway  companies. 
The  commission  was  required  to  make  an  annual  report  of 
the  facts  gathered  to  the  governor. 

The  commission  was  further  required  to  inquire  into  the 
fulfillment  of  the  law  by  the  railway  companies  and  to  prose 
cute  the  company  where  cases  of  the  violation  of  the  law  were 
reported  to  it  or  discovered  by  its  own  efforts.  The  commis 
sioners  were  given  power  to  examine  the  books  of  all  railway 
companies  and  to  subpoena  witnesses.  Failure  to  obey  the 
process  of  subpoena  was  punishable  by  fine,  imprisonment,  or 
both.  Failure  to  make  the  reports  required  by  the  law  or  by 
the  commissioners  was  also  punishable  by  fine.  The  attorney- 
general  and  the  state's-attorneys  were  required  to  institute  and 
prosecute  all  suits  which  were  referred  to  them  by  the  commis 
sioners. 

With  these  six  measures  the  state  legislature  began  the 
work  of  public  regulation  of  the  railroads.  On  July  3,  1871, 
Governor  Palmer  appointed  Gustavus  Koerner,  Richard  P. 
Morgan,  jr.,  and  David  S.  Hammond  as  the  first  board  of  rail 
road  and  warehouse  commissioners. l  The  board  met  on  July 
5th  and  began  their  duties  by  sending  requests  to  the  railway 
companies  doing  business  in  the  state  to  make  a  report  by  Sep 
tember  1st  on  the  particulars  specified  in  the  act  establishing 
the  commission,  and  also  requested  a  report  by  August  1st  on 

i  Moses,  op.  cit.t  II.,  809. 

[238] 


31 

the  amount  of  their  gross  annual  earnings  for  the  year  ending 
June  30,  1871,  and  the  total  length  of  road  on  which  these 
earnings  were  made,  in  order  that  the  classification  for  the 
schedule  of  passenger  rates  might  be  made. 

The  railway  companies  were  slow  in  sending  in  their  re 
ports  and,  as  a  result,  the  board  was  unable  to  make  the  required 
classification  until  its  October  meeting. 1  Of  twenty-one  roads 
operating  in  the  state  two  did  not  issue  reports,  two  did  not 
issue  reports  full  enough  for  classification,  and  of  the  remain 
ing  seventeen,  two  were  classed  in  Class  A,  three  in  Class  B, 
five  in  Class  C,  and  seven  in  Class  D.  The  gross  earnings  per 
mile  of  the  roads  varied  from  $1,800  in  the  case  of  the  St. 
Louis  and  Southeastern  to  $15,000  per  mile  on  the  fourteen 
miles  of  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern. 2 

The  reports  as  sent  in  by  the  companies  were  imperfect. 
The  different  methods  adopted  by  the  various  companies  for 
keeping  their  books  made  uniform  reports  practically  impos 
sible.  Books  of  different  companies  were  kept  for  different 
fiscal  years  and  many  of  the  roads  of  the  state  were  merely 
parts  of  great  railway  systems  running  through  other  states  so 
that  separate  accounts  were  not  kept  for  the  part  of  the  road 
in  Illinois.3 

Under  such  conditions,  the  task  of  securing  compliance 
with  the  law  must  necessarily  have  been  a  difficult  one,  but  it 
was  rendered  doubly  so  by  the  attitude  of  the  roads  toward  the 
new  laws.  The  people  looked  upon  these  laws  as  effectually 
settling  the  railway  question.  The  roads,  however,  denied  the 
constitutionality  of  the  law  and  determined  to  pay  no  atten 
tion  whatever  to  it  until  it  had  been  passed  upon  by  the  courts. 

This  attitude  is  clearly  shown  in  a  letter  which  represen 
tatives  of  four  of  the  leading  roads  of  the  state  submitted  on 
August  1,  1871,  to  the  commissioners  after  a  conference  had 
been  held  with  them.  This  letter  formally  denied  the  validity 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1871,  4. 

2  Ibid.,  64. 

3  Ibid.,  $. 

[239] 


32 

of  the  law  under  which  the  commission  was  working  and  asked 
that  the  board  institute  legal  steps  to  secure  in  a  court  of  last 
resort  a  decision  determining  "the  relative  rights  and  duties  of 
the  state  and  the  railroad  companies". 1 

Among  the  first  of  the  complaints  to  be  made  to  the  com 
mission  were  a  number  to  the  effect  that  the  railroads  were 
violating  the  long  and  short  haul  clause  of  the  act  to  prevent 
unjust  discriminations  and  extortion  in  freight  rates.  When 
the  commissioners  referred  the  complainants  to  the  clause  in 
the  act  which  gave  the  party  aggrieved  the  penalty  of  $1,000 
for  violation  of  the  law,  the  complainants  universally  refused 
to  prosecute,  declaring  that  they  could  not  afford  to  offend  the 
railway  companies  as  these  companies  had  it  in  their  power  to 
do  far  greater  harm  by  the  denying  of  accommodations  to  the 
complainants  than  the  penalty  could  benefit  them. 2 

The  first  report  of  the  commission,  made  in  December 
1871,  pointed  out  that  there  had  been  a  great  increase  in  railway 
construction  during  the  year  for  which  the  report  was  made 
and  that  a  large  amount  of  the  stock  of  the  new  companies 
was  fictitious,  but  the  railway  managers  were  nevertheless 
attempting  to  exact  rates  that  would  enable  the  companies  to 
pay  good  dividends  on  all  the  stock  issued.3  The  report  urged 
the  vital  importance  of  early  and  effective  action  by  the  legis 
lature  to  remedy  this  evil.  No  action,  however,  has  ever  been 
taken  by  the  legislature  with  a  view  to  the  regulation  of  the 
practice  of  stock  watering. 

The  existing  legislation  was  discussed  by  the  commissioners 
and  amendments  were  suggested  which  they  thought  would  be 
beneficial.  They  showed  that  the  laws  as  passed  conflicted  in 
some  particulars  and  that  there  was  uncertainty  as  to  just  how 
far  the  new  laws  repealed  previous  legislation  on  the  subj  ect.  The 
law  establishing  the  board  gave  the  commissioners  power  to  insti 
tute  suits  against  the  railroads  for  violation  of  the  laws,  and  it  was 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report  1871,  59-60. 

2  Ibid.,  6. 

3  Ibid.,  Q-II. 

[240] 


33 

provided  that  the  attorney-general  and  the  prosecuting  attor 
neys  were  to  act  under  their  direction,  yet  the  kind  of  action, 
whether  civil  or  criminal,  was  not  indicated  and  in  many  cases 
the  penalties  were  not  fixed.  The  commissioners  were  of  the 
opinion  that,  while  the  right  of  the  individual  to  prosecute  the 
company  was  retained,  there  ought  to  be  a  general  provision 
by  which  any  violation  of  the  law  would  be  made  an  indictable 
offense,  or  would  subject  the  offender  to  a  penalty  to  be  sued 
for  by  the  state. l 

The  report  also  pointed  out  the  difficulty  which  arose  from 
the  classification  of  the  roads  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  passen 
ger  rates  when  two  competing  companies  were  in  different 
classes.  The  road  which  the  law  allowed  to  charge  the  higher 
rate  of  fare  was  compelled  to  reduce  this  charge  to  the  rate 
which  the  law  fixed  as  the  maximum  which  its  competitor  could 
charge  in  order  to  meet  its  competition.  The  commissioners 
finally  suggested  a  remedy  which  they  thought  would  be  of  the 
greatest  value  in  solving  the  entire  railway  question  in  the 
state  and  the  one  which  in  their  opinion  was  perhaps  most  likely 
to  be  ultimately  adopted,  that  the  state  own  a  few  of  its  roads 
and  by  the  management  of  these  and  the  control  of  the  tariffs 
charged  by  them,  regulate  the  other  roads  of  the  state. 2 

In  his  message  to  the  adjourned  session  of  the  general 
assembly  which  met  November  15,  1871,  Governor  Palmer  sug 
gested  that  the  new  railway  laws  would  need  amendments  to 
make  them  realize  public  expectations,  as  the  commissioners 
were  not  provided  with  sufficient  means  to  enforce  the  law. 
He  pointed  out  in  particular  that  the  state's  attorneys,  the 
principal  legal  agents  on  whom  the  board  had  to  rely  would 
cease  to  exist  after  their  present  terms  expired  and  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  laws  would  be  left  to  the  county  attorneys. 3  The 
chairman  of  the  commission  had  prepared  a  bill,  consolidating 
and  digesting  all  laws  then  existing  in  regard  to  the  railroads 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1871,  14. 

2  Ibid.,  25-26 

3  Senate  Journal,  1871,  11:5. 

[241] 


34 

and  removing  all  conflicting  features.  This  bill  was  intro 
duced  in  the  house,  but  was  lost  in  committee.  A  bill  prepared 
by  the  commission,  embodying  all  the  railway  police  laws  in 
force  in  the  state,  as  well  as  some  features  from  the  legislation 
of  other  states,  was  introduced  in  the  senate,  but  suffered  the 
same  fate  as  the  house  bill.1 

In  their  second  annual  report  the  commissioners  presented 
some  interesting  facts  with  regard  to  the  railroads  of  the  state. 
They  showed  that  by  November 30,  1872,  there  were  6,258  miles 
of  railroad  in  the  state  with  1,587  miles  in  process  of  construc 
tion.  The  average  cost  of  the  completed  roads  as  shown  by 
the  reports  of  the  commission  was  $42,264  per  mile.  The  com 
mission  believed  that  all  expenditure  over  $25,000  per  mile  was 
due  to  fictitious  stock,  sacrifices  made  in  sale  of  securities  and 
other  losses  due  to  bad  management  and  unavoidable  delays 
in  the  work  of  construction.2  By  the  time  of  the  issuance  of 
the  second  report  railroads  had  been  extended  until  seventy- 
three  per  cent  of  all  the  land  in  the  state  lay  within  five  miles 
of  some  road  in  actual  operation,  twenty-one  and  one-half  per 
cent  lay  between  five  and  ten  miles,  four  per  cent  between  ten 
and  fifteen  miles,  and  one  and  one-half  per  cent  lay  more  than 
fifteen  miles  distant  from  any  railroad.3  The  twenty-seven 
roads  actually  operating  and  issuing  reports  full  enough  for 
classification  showed  a  variation  in  gross  earnings  per  mile  for 
the  year  of  from  $772  to  $19,885.  The  average  gross  earnings 
were  $8,108  and  the  average  net  earnings,  $2,789.  Such  in  gen 
eral  was  the  condition  of  the  roads  when  the  attempt  was 
made  through  the  agency  of  the  courts  to  put  into  force  the 
laws  concerning  public  control. 


1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1872,  12. 

2  Ibid.,  18. 

3  Ibid.,  19. 

[242] 


SECTION  III. 
LITIGATION  OVER  THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  LAW. 


Unanimity  of  opinion  throughout  the  state  as  to  the 
advisability  of  the  new  laws  in  restraint  of  the  railroads  was 
lacking.  In  some  portions  of  the  state,  and  in  Chicago  especi 
ally,  there  was  manifested  considerable  opposition  on  the 
ground  that  the  state  was  taking  up  a  war  upon  capital  that 
would  not  be  for  best  interests  of  the  people.  The  counties 
that  were  anxious  for  railway  development  opposed  any  state 
action  hostile  to  the  roads.  But  in  the  corn-growing  counties 
there  was  an  active  demand  for  the  enforcement  of  the  re 
strictive  legislation.  The  summer  of  1872  produced  an  extra 
ordinary  corn  crop  and  the  farmers  were  anticipating  great 
profits  from  the  sale  of  their  staple.  The  railroads  felt  that 
the  abundant  crop  would  afford  them  a  large  traffic  and  conse 
quently  tariffs  raised.  In  December,  1872,  corn  in  central 
Illinois  was  worth  seventeen  cents  a  bushel'  while  the  cost  of 
the  transportation  of  a  bushel  of  corn  to  New  York  was  thirty- 
five  cents,  over  twice  the  value  of  the  corn.  The  farmer  saw 
that  his  expected  profits  would  be  absorbed  by  the  railroads 
by  means  of  a  rate  which  he  considered  extortionate  and  he 
was  determined  to  see  the  law  enforced. l  In  answer  to  this 
popular  demand,  the  commission  sought  to  secure  compliance 
with  the  law  through  the  aid  of  the  courts. 

The  first  suit  under  the  new  laws  was  brought  by  Stephen 
R.  Moore  of  Kankakee  against  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  for  charging  four  cents  a  mile  for  passengers  when 
the  classification  of  the  commission  called  for  by  law  allowed 
them  to  charge  only  three.  The  case  was  tried  in  the  circuit 
court  of  Kankakee  County  on  an  admitted  statement  of  facts. 

i  Davidson  &  Stuve,  op.  cit.  1027. 

[243] 


36 

December  4,  1872,  Judge  Wood,  who  occupied  the  bench  for 
this  trial,  handed  down  a  verdict  for  the  railroad  company.  The 
grounds  of  his  decision  were  that  it  had  not  been  shown  that  the 
rate  charged  was  unreasonable  and  that  the  fixing  of  rates  by  the 
legislature  was  an  unconstitutional  violation  of  the  railway 
charter.  The  decision  further  held  that  the  legislature  could 
not  at  any  time  fix  the  fare  as  it  had  no  judicial  powers  and 
no  means  of  ascertaining  whether  a  rate  is  reasonable  or  not. 
No  appeal  was  taken  from  this  decision  of  Judge  Wood  and  at 
the  time  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  the  decision  was  cor 
rect.  ' 

In  a  later  case,  however,  which  came  up  under  the  same 
law,  an  appeal  was  taken  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  state 
and  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  was  upheld.  This  latter 
case,  generally  known  as  the  Neal  Ruggles  case,  arose  in  1873, 
and  the  decision  of  the  supreme  court  was  handed  down  in 
1878,  five  years  after  the  law  was  repealed.  The  opinion  of  the 
higher  court  in  this  case  was  that  "the  legislature  of  this  state 
has  the  power  under  the  constitution  to  fix  a  maximum  rate 
of  charges  by  individuals  as  common  carriers,  or  others  exer 
cising  a  business  public  in  its  character,  or  in  which  the  public 
has  an  interest  to  be  protected  against  extortion  or  oppression, 
and  it  has  the  same  rightful  power  in  respect  to  corporations 
exercising  the  same  business,  and  such  regulation  does  not  im 
pair  the  obligation  of  the  contract  in  their  charters."2 

The  first  decision  of  the  supreme  court,  however,  in  which 
the  principal  points  at  issue  were  covered,  and  the  one  which 
led  to  important  changes  in  the  legislation  of  1871,  was  handed 
down  in  what  is  known  as  the  McLean  County  case.  This  case 
arose  in  1871  under  the  act  to  prevent  unjust  discrimination 
and  extortion  in  freight  rates.  On  December  5th  of  that  year, 
J.  H.  Rowell,  state's  attorney  of  the  ninth  judicial  district, 
acting  on  the  information  of  the  Railroad  and  Warehouse  Com- 

1  Davidson  &  Stuve,  op.  cit.  1028. 

2  91  Illinois,  256. 

[244] 


37 

mission  began  quo  warranto  proceedings  against  the  Chicago  & 
Alton  Railroad  Company  for  alleged  violation  of  the  act  men 
tioned  above.  The  information  filed  by  the  state's  attorney 
set  forth  that  this  company  had  repeatedly  transported  lumber 
from  Chicago  to  Lexington,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  ten 
miles,  for  $5.65  a  thousand  feet,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
charged  only  $5.00  a  thousand  feet  for  transporting  like  lumber 
from  Chicago  to  Bloomington,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  miles.  The  former  haul  was  included  within  the 
latter.  The  railway  company  entered  a  plea,  admitting  the 
alleged  facts,  but  setting  forth  the  acts  of  the  legislature  by 
which  it  was  incorporated  and  claiming  that  such  acts  gave  it 
the  right  to  use  its  own  discretion  in  the  fixing  of  tolls,  and 
that  the  act  of  1871  was  in  violation  of  its  charter  rights,  and? 
therefore,  unconstitutional.  To  this  plea  a  general  demurrer 
was  interposed  and  the  case  came  up  for  hearing  on  the  de 
murrer. 

It  is  worth  our  while  to  consider  in  detail  the  arguments 
presented  by  both  sides  of  this  important  test  case  as  they  pre 
sent  a  clear  statement  of  the  attitude  assumed  on  the  one  side 
by  the  railway  companies  and  on  the  other  by  the  people. 

Mr.  Corydon  Beckwith,  for  the  defense,  argued  that  the 
legislature  in  incorporating  the  railroad  had  given  the  directors 
the  power  to  fix  the  rate  of  toll;  that  the  Lexington  rate  was 
not  unreasonably  high  while  that  to  Bloomington  was  made 
unreasonably  low  to  meet  the  competition  of  the  Illinois  Cen 
tral;  that  by  common  law  the  company  had  the  right  to  charge 
more  for  a  less  than  for  a  greater  distance  in  order  to  meet 
competition;  that  the  state  had  the  power  to  contract,  the 
railway  company  the  capacity  to  be  contracted  with,  and  that 
the  state  had  not  surrendered  any  inalienable  rights  in  that 
the  judiciary  still  had  the  power  to  determine  what  were  rea 
sonable  and  unreasonable  rates;  and,  finally,  that  "the  legisla 
ture  never  had  the  right  to  fix  the  rates  to  be  charged  by 
common  carriers  except  by  contract.  It  can  no  more  fix  them 
for  an  artificial  person  than  for  a  natural  one.  It  may  require 

[245] 


38 

of  one  as  well  as  the  other  that  the  rates  shall  be  reasonable; 
but  it  cannot  make  itself  the  judge  of  what  rates  are  reasonable 
and  what  are  not  so.  The  contract  makes  the  judiciary  the  judge 
between  the  parties,  and  the  attempt  to  define  the  rights  of  the 
defendant  by  legislative  enactment  is  simply  the  judgment  of 
one  of  the  parties  to  the  contract." l 

The  argument  for  the  people  was  an  equally  able  defense 
of  their  position.  It  set  up  that  the  question  underlying  the 
case  was  whether  the  act  of  1871  was  in  conflict  with  the  pro 
visions  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States;  that  legislative 
authority  was  a  trust  which  the  legislature  could  not  irrevo 
cably  delegate  or  abandon  and  the  legislature  could  not  by  a 
contract  deprive  a  future  legislature  of  the  power  of  exercising 
any  act  of  sovereignty  confided  to  the  legislative  body;  that  the 
prevention  of  unjust  discrimination  and  extortion  comes  within 
the  legitimate  exercise  of  the  police  powers  of  the  state;  and, 
finally,  that  it  could  not  be  presumed  that  the  legislature  in 
tended  irrevocably  to  part  with  the  power  of  preventing  by 
legislative  enactment,  unjust  discrimination  between  commu 
nities  or  individuals,  and,  as  nothing  was  taken  against  the 
state  by  implication,  it  was  incumbent  upon  the  defendant  to 
show  that  the  state  by  positive  enactment  had  contracted  with 
the  defendant  to  withdraw  permanently  all  control  over  its 
rate  of  charges. 2 

Judge  Tipton,  the  presiding  judge,  handed  down  a  verdict 
for  the  people,  sustaining  the  demurrer  to  the  plea.  The  de 
cision  took  the  ground  that  no  part  of  the  contract  between 
the  state  and  the  defendant  was  impaired  by  the  law  of  1871, 
and  that  consequently  the  state  retained  the  power  so  to  regu 
late  and  control  the  franchise  of  the  defendant  as  to  determine 
what  should  constitute  unjust  discrimination  between  com 
munities  as  well  as  between  individuals,  and  to  prevent  such 
discrimination  by  proper  legislation.1 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1872,  46-69. 

2  Ibid.  70-98. 

[246] 


39 

The  case  was  appealed  by  the  railroad  company,  and  was 
tried  in  the  January  term  (1873)  of  the  state  supreme  court.2 
The  decision  was  reversed  and  the  case  remanded.  Chief  Jus 
tice  Lawrence,  in  delivering  the  opinion  of  the  court,  declared 
that  the  legislature  had  a  clear  right  to  pass  an  act  preventing 
unjust  discrimination  in  freight  rates  and  to  enforce  it  by  ap 
propriate  penalties  ;  that  a  less  charge  for  a  long  distance  than 
for  a  shorter  one  was  an  unjust  discrimination  unless  the  rail 
road  could  show  a  peculiar  state  of  affairs  to  justify  the  dis 
crimination  further  than  the  mere  fact  that  there  were  com 
peting  lines  at  one  point  and  not  at  the  other  ;  but  the  consti 
tution  of  1870  had  given  the  legislature  power  to  enact  laws 
preventing  unjust  discriminations,  and  the  act  under  which  the 
case  is  being  tried  declares  all  discriminations  unlawful  without 
giving  the  railway  company  the  right  to  introduce  evidence  to 
show  that  the  discrimination  was  just.  Thus,  although  the 
court  held  that  the  legislature  had  complete  power  to  prohibit 
unjust  discriminations  in  freight  rates,  it  nevertheless  declared 
that  no  prosecution  could  be  maintained  under  the  existing  act 
until  it  was  amended  so  as  to  prohibit  unjust  discriminations 
and  riot  discriminations  of  all  kinds. 

The  decision  of  Judge  Lawrence  cleared  up  the  railroad 
situation  in  Illinois.  It  showed  that  the  law  which  was  in 
tended  to  correct  one  of  the  grossest  abuses  in  the  railway  bus 
iness,  unjust  discriminations  in  the  transportation  of  freight, 
had  been  so  framed  as  to  be  contrary  to  the  state  constitution, 
and  that  consequently  the  legislature  had  failed  in  its  effort  to 
prevent  discriminations  in  freight  rates.  But  its  greatest  value 
lies  in  the  dictum  with  regard  to  the  power  of  the  legislature 
to  fix  rates.  It  plainly  declared  that  the  courts  of  Illinois 
would  not  uphold  the  railroads  in  their  contention  that  the  leg 
islature  in  granting  them  their  charters  had  surrendered  its 
right  to  regulate  charges,  and  that  they  were,  therefore,  not  sub 
ject  to  legislative  control  in  fixing  their  rates. 

1  R.  R.  £  W.  Corn.  Report,  1872,    99-114. 

2  67  111.,  ii. 

[247] 


SECTION  IV. 

THE  LAW  OF  1873  AND   THE  POWERS  OF  THE  COMMISSION  AS 

MODIFIED  BY  IT. 


By  the  beginning  of  the  year  1873,  the  opposition  of  the 
farmers  to  the  railroads  had  reached  a  state  of  frenzy.  Numer 
ous  farmers'  conventions  and  meetings  were  being  held  and  at 
all  of  them  the  railway  situation  seemed  to  be  the  most  im 
portant  topic  for  discussion.  The  management  of  the  roads 
was  violently  denounced.  A  portion  of  an  address  delivered 
before  a  convention  of  delegates  from  granges  and  other  farmers 
organizations,  which  met  at  Bloomington,  January  15,  1873, 
clearly  illustrates  the  radical  attitude  of  the  farmers1.  "The 
whole  railroad  system  is  fast  falling  into  a  very  few  organizations 
each  of  whom  represents  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars.  It 
looks  as  though  the  'King'  in  Wall  street  may  soon  rule  over 
the  whole.  Already  the  country  is  parcelled  out  in  lots  and 
vast  regions  to  the  different  systems.  In  most  cases  there 
is  no  restraint  to  their  charges  save  only  the  ability  of  the  vic 
tim  to  exist  under  the  load.  Like  hostile  invading  armies,  they 
levy  contributions  limited  only  by  the  ability  of  the  victims  to 
pay.  These  exactions  are  again  aggravated  by  unjust  discrim 
inations  against  persons  and  places.  If  competition  shows  itself 
at  a  few  points,  they  remorselessly  double  up  on  others  within 
their  grasp.  They  levy  an  Internal  Revenue  tax  by  their  own 

h'at  and  to  fill  their  own  coffers The  country  is  being 

robbed  and  large  portions  of  the  money  basely  applied.  Un 
happy  France  only  submitted  to  be  ravaged  after  a  gallant  strug 
gle.  These  railroad  Bismarcks  prey  upon  us,  and  as  yet  we 
have  scarcely  lifted  a  finger.  We  must,  Grant-like,  move  upon 
the  enemy's  works.  If  the  tidal-wave  now  rising  does  not  win, 
it  must  be  followed  by  such  a  succession  of  others  each  higher 
and  stronger  till  the  railroad  Pharaohs  are  brought  to  judg- 

i  The  Prairie  Farmer,  January  215,  1873. 

[248] 


41 

ment."  Nor  were  legal  precedents  to  be  allowed  to  stand  in 
the  way  of  the  people  in  their  effort  to  control  the  roads.  "In 
our  advancing  civilization  public  interest  and  public  necessity 
will  not  be  thwarted  by  old  and  musty  cobweb  precedents. 
'Dartmouth  College'  may  have  been  well  enough  for  that  day 
and  for  an  institution  of  learning  ;  but  it  cannot  much  longer 

be  made  a  standard  rule  and  hobby  horse  for  railroads 

Let  that  decision  stand,  for  aught  we  care,  for  all  such  cases, 
but  it  will  no  more  apply  to  railroad  corporations  than  will  the 
baby  garments  of  infancy  clothe  the  stalwart  man,  or  the  con 
stable's  posse  meet  the  demands  of  a  great  revolution 

The  new  constitution  of  Illinois  declares  railroads  to  be  public 
institutions  subject  to  be  regulated  by  law,  and  commands  the 
legislature  to  act.  The  legislature  has  mildly  obeyed.  The 
roads  spit  upon  the  law  and  defy  the  people.  They  stand  in 
open  rebellion  to  the  constitution  and  laws.  Near  here  a  judge 
has  decided  in  favor  of  the  supremacy  of  the  people.  This  is  a 
good  start.  There  should  be  no  faltering.  Let  public  opinion 
be  aroused  and  the  executive  and  the  legislature  stimu 
lated  to  bring  all  their  powers  to  bear  upon  the  question."  Such 
were  the  remarks  of  a  man1  who  had  been  a  prominent  member 
of  the  constitutional  convention  of  1870. 

From  the  fruit  growers  of  southern  Illinois  came  the  cry 
that  they  were  "wholly  at  the  mercy  of  the  soulless  I.  C.  R.  R. 
Co."*  The  principal  topic  discussed  at  this  time  in  the  pages  of 
the  "Prairie  Farmer,"  the  leading  granger  organ  of  the  West, 
was  not  some  difficulty  in  corn-raising  or  fruit-growing,  but 
rather  the  best  means  of  bringing  the  railroads  into  subjec 
tion  to  the  will  of  the  people.  Hadley  in  his  "Railroad  Trans 
portation"3  well  describes  the  position  of  the  farmer  when  he 
says,  "They  were  concerned  in  securing  what  they  felt  to  be 
their  rights,  and  they  were  unwilling  that  any  constitutional 
barriers  should  be  made  to  defeat  the  popular  will.  They  had 

1  Hon.  D.  L.  Whiting  of  Bureau  Co. 

2  The  Prairie  Farmer,  January  25,  1873. 

3  Page  134. 

[249] 


42 

reached  the  point  where  they  regarded  many  of  the  forms  of 
law  as  mere  technicalities.  They  were  dangerously  near  the 
point  where  revolutions  begin." 

The  farmers  made  their  influence  felt  in  the  state  govern 
ment.  When  Governor  Beveridge,  after  his  succession  to  office, 
sent  his  nominations  for  the  members  of  the  railroad  and  ware 
house  commission  to  the  senate  for  confirmation,  the  list  was 
not  satisfactory  to  the  farmers.  A  storm  of  criticism  of  the 
Governor  for  ignoring  the  wishes  of  the  people  arose,  which  so 
influenced  the  senate  that  it  became  evident  that  the  nomina 
tions  would  not  be  confirmed.  As  a  result  the  Governor  was 
forced  to  withdraw  his  nominations  and  send  in  appointments 
satisfactory  to  the  farmers.1 

The  treatment  accorded  to  Judge  Lawrence  by  the  people 
shows  how  determined  was  the  attitude  assumed  by  the  farm 
ers.  When  his  decision  was  announced,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  it  contained  merely  a  statement  of  legal  principles, 
the  justice  of  which  was  clearly  obvious,  it  was  received  with 
an  outbreak  of  denunciation.  The  farmer  had  supposed  that 
the  vexed  railway  questions  had  been  finally  settled  by  the  laws 
of  1871,  and  their  disappointment  was  keen.  The  Supreme 
Court  and  Judge  Lawrence  in  particular  were  denounced  as  be 
ing  in  the  pay  of  railroads,  and  when  Judge  Lawrence  ran  for 
reelection  the  following  summer,  he  was  defeated  merely 
through  the  unpopularity  which  arose  from  this  decision.2  Such 
was  the  intense  state  of  popular  feeling. 

Nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  this  determined  atti 
tude  of  the  people  should  lead  to  a  demand  for  new  legislation. 
The  act  declaring  discriminations  in  freight  rates  illegal  was 
intended  to  correct  the  evils  in  the  freight  tariffs,  and  with  it 
declared  unconstitutional,  one  very  important  feature  of  the 
restrictive  legislation  of  1871  became  of  no  effect.  Some  law  to 
take  its  place  was,  therefore,  demanded.  On  April  2, 1873,  while 
the  legislature  was  still  in  session,  a  convention  of  the  farmers  of 

1  The  Prairie  Farmer,  February  15,  1873. 

2  A.  T.  Hadley,  "Railroad  Transportation,"  134. 

[250] 


43 

the  state  met  at  Springfield  to  urge  the  enactment  of  a  new 
railway  law  to  take  the  place  of  the  one  which  had  been  de 
clared  unconstitutional.1  In  response  to  this  popular  demand 
and  with  a  view  to  meeting  the  defects  in  the  law  of  1871  which 
had  been  pointed  out  by  Judge  Lawrence  in  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  by  the  railroad  commissioners  in  their  an 
nual  reports,  the  Twenty-Sixth  General  Assembly  passed,  May 
2,  1873,  an  act  to  prevent  extortion  and  unjust  discrimination 
in  freight  and  passenger  rates,  repealing  the  act  of  1871  to  pre 
vent  unjust  discrimination  and  extortion  in  freight  rates.2 

The  new  law  prohibited  unjust  discrimination  and  the 
charging  of  more  than  a  reasonable  rate,  and  m&deprima  facie 
evidence  of  unjust  discrimination  the  charging  of  a  greater  sum 
for  the  transportation  of  passengers  and  the  same  kinds  of  freight 
for  a  less  than  for  a  greater  distance;  and  the  charging  of  dif 
ferent  sums  for  the  same  distance,  for  different  persons  and  for  the 
same  kinds  of  freight;  and  further  declared  that  the  existence  of 
competition  at  certain  points  is  not  a  justification  of  such  dis 
crimination.3  The  penalty  for  violation  of  this  provision  is  a  fine 
which  is  to  be  recovered  by  an  action  for  debt  in  the  name  of 
the  state.4  The  railroad  and  warehouse  commissioners  are  en 
joined  personally  to  investigate  and  ascertain  whether  the  law 
is  being  observed  and  to  prosecute  all  violations  of  it.5  The 
commissioners  are  further  directed  to  prepare  a  schedule  of 
reasonable  maximum  passenger  and  freight  rates  for  each  of 
the  railroads  in  the  state.  In  actions  of  law  the  rates  of  such 
schedules  are  to  be  taken  as prima  facie  reasonable.6 

This  last  provision  of  the  act  gave  to  the  commission  a  new 
power  of  vast  importance,  and  by  means  of  it  a  long  stride  in 
advance  in  the  work  of  railway  regulation  was  taken.  The  leg 
islature  had  now  hit  upon  a  means  of  controlling  rates  which, 

1  Prairie  Farmer,  April  12,  1873. 

2  Revised  Statutes  of  Illinois,  1874,  816-20. 

3  Sec.  3. 

4  Sec.  5. 

5  Sec.  7. 

6  Sec.  8. 

[251] 


44 

while  perhaps  not  the  best  possible,  was  at  least  far  superior  to 
the  one  which  had  been  attempted.  The  laws  of  1871  had  fixed 
maximum  passenger  rates  for  the  roads,  but  no  attempt 
had  been  made  to  fix  maxima  for  the  freight  rates,  the  only 
provision  being  that  freight  rates  must  not  be  unreasonable 
or  discriminating.  Any  scheme,  however,  by  which  an  at 
tempt  is  made  to  fix  the  rate  of  tariff  by  legislative  enactment 
has  one  great  defect,  the  lack  of  flexibility.  No  matter  how 
just  may  be  the  maximum  rates  fixed  by  the  stutute,  changing 
conditions  will  necessitate  constant  changes  in  the  laws,  which 
it  is  impossible  to  secure.  This  difficulty  was  obviated  in  1873 
by  placing  in  the  hands  of  a  board  the  authority  to  fix  the 
maximum  rates,  and  the  granting  of  this  authority  greatly  in 
creased  the  power  of  the  commission. 

The  act  as  amended  in  1873  is  the  law  under  which  the 
commission  is  working  at  the  present  time.  The  chief  duties 
of  the  commission  prescribed  by  this  law,  so  far  as  they  pertain 
to  railroads  are : 

1.  The  making  of  schedules  of  maximum  freight  and  pas 

senger  rates. 

2.  The  investigation  of  complaints  and  the  enforcement 

by  prosecutions  of  violations  of  the  schedules  and  of 
the  statutes. 

3.  The  taking  of  precautions  to   secure  proper  and  safe 

physical  condition  of  roadbeds,  bridges  and  trestles. 

4.  The  requiring  of  annual  reports  from  the  various  roads. 

5.  The  making  of  an  annual  report  to  the  governor. 

The  Illinois  commission  was  thus  a  "strong"  commission, 
that  is,  a  commission  "with  power."  In  this  respect  it  inaugurated 
a  new  method  of  railway  control  in  the  United  States.  State  rail 
way  commissions  had  existed  since  1836,  when  a  commission 
was  established  in  Rhode  Island,1  and  in  1871  six  states2  had 
commissions,  all  of  which  were  of  the  type  of  the  advisory  or 

1  Meyer,  Railway  Legislation  in  the  United  States,  p.  65. 

2  New  Hampshire,  1844;  Connecticut,  1853;  Vermont,  1855;  Maine,  1858;  Ohio 
1867;  and  Massachusetts,  1869. 

[252] 


45 

"weak"  commission.  In  the  creation  of  commissions  since 
1871,  the  majority  of  states  have  followed  the  example  set  by 
Illinois  and  have  adopted  some  form  of  the  strong  commission. 
Thirty  states  at  the  present  time  (Jan.  1,  1903)  have  railway 
commissions.  Of  these,  ten  states1  have  established  advisory 
commissions  and  the  remaining  twenty2  have  commissions  of 
the  strong  type.3 

The  functions  of  the  weak  commission  are  supervisory  and 
advisory.  Complaints  against  the  railroads  are  made  to  the 
commission  and  if  on  investigation  it  believes  the  complaints 
well  grounded,  it  recommends  to  the  railway  company  the  cor 
rection  of  the  evil  complained  of.  Failure  of  the  roads  to 
comply  with  the  recommendation  is  reported  to  the  governor 
or  to  the  legislature.  In  addition  to  the  supervisory  and  advis 
ory  functions  of  the  weak  commission,  the  Illirrois  commission 
has  been  given  the  further  power  of  regulation.  Not  only  has 
it  the  right  to  investigate  complaints  and  to  make  recommend 
ations  to  the  railway  companies,  but  it  also  has  the  power  by 
the  institution  of  suits  to  compel  obedience  to  its  regulations 
and  compliance  with  the  law. 

A  typical  form  of  the  weak  commission  is  that  formed  in 
Massachusetts.  In  that  state  the  chief  duties  of  the  board  are : 

1.  To  investigate  as  to  whether  the  roads  are  living  up  to 
their  charters  and  to  report  violations  of  the  charter 
rights. 

1  The  ten  commissions  with  the  dates  of  their  establishment  are  :     Colorado,  1885; 
Connecticut,  1853;  Massachusetts,  1869;  Michigan,  1873;  New  York,  1883;  Ohio,  1867; 
Rhode  Island,  1872;  Vermont,  1855;  Virginia,  1877:  Wisconsin,  1874. 

2  Alabama,  1881;  Arkansas,  1899;  California,  1876;  Florida,  1897;  Georgia,  1879; 
Illinois,   1871;  Iowa,   1878;  Kansas,   1901;    Kentucky,  1880;    Louisiana,   1898;  Maine, 
1858;   Minnesota,   1871;    Mississippi,    1884;  Missouri,    1875;    New  Hampshire,   1844; 
North  Dakota,   1889;    South  Carolina,  1878;    South  Dakota,  1889;    Tennessee,  1897; 
Texas,  1891. 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission  Report  on  "Railways  in  the  United  States  in 
in  1902,"  Pt.  IV.,  46-60. 

3  F.  C.  Clark,  "State  Railroad  Commissions  and  How  They  May  be  Made  Effec 
tive,"  in  Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Association,  VI:  473-582,  Appendix 
A,  Table  I. 

[253] 


46 

2.  To  care  for  the  safety  and  accommodation  of  the  public. 

3.  To  inspect  books  of  railway  companies  and  to  require  a 

uniform  system  of  accounts. 

4.  To  summon  witnesses  in  order  to  decide  upon  the  mer 

its  of  a  controversy  and  to  arbitrate  disputes  between 
the  roads  and  the  complainants.  If  the  roads  refuse 
to  obey  the  recommendations  of  the  commission,  the 
attorney-general  decides  whether  the  state  shall 
prosecute  or  not. 

5.  To  make  annual  reports  to  the  legislature. 

The  commission  relies  chiefly  on  public  opinion  for  the  enforce 
ment  of  its  decisions.  The  public  press  is  used  in  keeping  the 
recommendations  of  the  commission  before  the  people,  and  the 
legislature  is  ever  ready  to  enforce  its  decisions.  In  this  way 
a  very  effective  control  over  the  roads  has  been  secured. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  might  seem  at  first  thought 
that  the  natural  course  for  the  Illinois  legislature  to  have  taken 
would  have  been  to  model  the  Illinois  commission  after  the 
commissions  which  were  already  in  successful  operation  else 
where.  It  must,  however,  be  remembered  that  the  state  con 
stitution  enjoined  upon  the  legislature  the  fixing  from  time  to 
time  of  reasonable  maximum  passenger  and  freight  rates,  and  this 
duty  was  very  naturally  entrusted  to  the  commission  as  the 
most  efficient  body  for  carrying  out  the  constitutional  provis 
ions.  There  were,  moreover,  differences  between  the  condi 
tions  in  the  New  England  states,  where  all  the  commissions 
then  existing,  with  the  exception  of  the  one  in  Ohio,  were  to  be 
found,  and  in  Illinois,  which  made  it  highly  probable  that  a 
supervisory  and  advisory  commission  would  not  be  successful 
in  its  working  in  this  state.  The  commissions  in  the  East  worked 
in  conservative  communities  where  public  opinion  was  a  power 
ful  force.  The  roads  were  owned  largely  by  capitalists  living 
in  the  community  and  on  whom  public  opinion  could  easily 
exert  its  force.  In  Illinois,  however,  the  roads  were  owned  by 
eastern  capitalists  who,  however  sensitive  they  may  have  been 

[254] 


47 

to  public  feeling  were,  as  C.  F.  Adams  points  out,1  in  no  posi 
tion  to  appreciate  the  exact  state  of  that  feeling.  Further  than 
this,  railroads  had  reached  a  considerable  development  in  New 
England  before  the  commissions  were  established,  and  these 
bodies  were  not  often  forced  to  meet  and  correct  the  evils  aris 
ing  from  rapid  railway  building.2  Industrial  conditions  were 
in  a  more  settled  state,  and  industry  had  adapted  itself  to  trans 
portation  conditions,  while  in  Illinois  in  1870  this  adaptation 
had  yet  to  take  place.  Such  considerations  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  results  obtained  in  New  England  could  not  have  been 
attained  in  Illinois  by  the  same  type  of  a  commission. 

In  addition  to  these  considerations,  the  attitude  which  the 
railroads  actually  assumed  would  seem  to  furnish  conclusive 
evidence  that  a  commission  of  the  Massachusetts  type  would 
have  been  unable  to  cope  with  the  situation  in  Illinois  at  this 
time.  The  railroads  made  no  attempt  to  correct  evils  which  it 
was  very  evident  were  universally  condemned  by  public  opinion. 
When  public  opinion  had  shaped  itself  into  the  restrictive  leg 
islation  of  1871-73,  it  has  been  shown  that  the  railroads  dis 
played  no  inclination  to  yield  and  only  conformed  their  prac 
tices  to  the  demands  of  the  public  when  forced  to  do  so  by  the 
courts. 


1  "Railroads,  Their  Origin  and  Problems,"  140. 

2  F.  B.  Dixon,  "State  Railroad  Control,"  201-203. 

[255] 


SECTION  V. 


THE  SCHEDULE  OF  MAXIMUM  RATES. 


One  of  the  most  important  provisions  of  the  law  of  1878  in 
its  direct  bearing  on  railway  conditions  was  that  which  made 
it  the  duty  of  the  commissioners  to  prepare  a  schedule,  for  each 
different  railroad,  of  reasonable  maximum  rates  of  charge  for 
the  transportation  of  passengers  and  freight.  Although  such  a 
provision  as  this  brought  the  railroads  to  a  much  greater  de 
gree  under  the  control  of  the  commission,  there  were  serious 
objections  to  conferring  on  the  commission  such  a  power.  It 
is  in  the  first  place  more  expedient  to  give  a  commission  the 
power  to  investigate  any  particular  rate  arid  to  make  its  find 
ings  with  respect  to  that  one  rate  prima  facie  evidence  of  reas 
onableness  than  it  is  to  require  of  the  commission  the  making 
of  schedules  of  rates.  Different  roads  work  under  such  different 
sets  of  conditions  that  not  only  do  reasonable  rates  differ  for 
each  road,  but  they  also  differ  for  the  different  sections  of  the 
same  road.  Justice  in  the  rates  allowed  could  only  have  been 
approached  by  the  commission  undertaking  the  preparation  of 
a  schedule  for  each  road  in  the  state.  Even  such  a  plan  would 
have  left  out  of  account  the  important  fact  that  reasonable 
rates  differed  on  the  same  road.  This  difficulty  could  only  have 
been  met  by  the  clearly  impossible  task  of  preparing  schedules 
of  reasonable  rates  for  each  road  and  between  all  of  the  points 
of  shipment  on  each  road.  The  further  difficulty  would  have 
remained  that  the  time  of  year  is  a  determining  factor  in  the 
consideration  of  the  reasonableness  of  rates,  and  a  rate  which 
is  reasonable  for  one  time  of  year  might  be  clearly  unreason 
able  for  another. 

An  attempt  is  made  in  the  law  under  which  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  is  working  to  obviate  the  difficulties 
which  arise  from  the  adopting  of  schedules  by  a  commission. 

[256] 


49 

That  law  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  commission  to  investigate 
individual  rates  on  complaint  or  on  its  own  motion  and  deter 
mine  their  reasonableness.  The  courts  have,  however, 
refused  to  admit  the  findings  of  the  commission  as  prima  facie 
evidence  of  reasonable  rates  and  Congress  has  not  yet  conferred 
upon  the  Commission  the  right  to  determine  in  specific  cases 
what  rate  is  reasonable  and  to  enforce  its  findings.  While  there 
are  many  grave  objections  to  a  plan  of  this  sort,  it  seems  prob 
able  that  its  emploj^ment  in  Illinois  would  have  been  more  ben 
eficial  in  its  workings  than  the  plan  which  was  adopted. 

A  difficulty  in  the  practical  working  of  the  law  arose  from 
the  fact  that  the  duty  of  making  the  schedules  devolved  upon 
a  board  of  commissioners  which  had  been  in  office  less  than  a 
year  and  which  was  made  up  of  men  who  were  not  practical 
railroad  men.  Although  the  remainder  of  the  law  went  into 
effect  July  1,  1873,  special  provision  was  made  that  the  section 
providing  for  the  adoption  by  the  commission  of  the  schedules 
of  maximum  rates  should  not  go  into  force  until  January  15, 
1874.  This  provision  was  made  in  order  that  the  commission 
ers  might  be  given  ample  time  to  prepare  the  schedules.  In 
August  of  1873,  the  commissioners  began  the  arduous  work  of 
preparing  these  schedules. l  A  more  difficult  task  cannot  easily 
be  conceived  of.  The  men  whose  positions  best  fitted  them  to 
prepare  schedules  of  reasonable  rates  were  the  traffic  managers 
of  the  various  roads,  but  whenever  these  managers  were  sum 
moned  before  a  commission,  they  referred  that  body  to  their 
published  schedules  as  their  idea  of  reasonable  rates.  It  was, 
however,  the  evils  of  these  very  schedules  which  the  commis 
sion  was  seeking  to  remedy.  The  commissioners  were  largely 
guided  in  their  work  by  the  testimony  of  well  informed  ship 
pers  throughout  the  state.  The  amount  of  capital  invested  in 
road  and  equipment,  the  amount  of  business  done,  and  the  av 
erage  proportion  of  the  operating  expenses  to  the  gross  earn 
ings  were  given  important  consideration. 

By  the  plan  which  was  adopted,  the  roads  of  the  state  were 

i  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1873,  25,  26. 

[257] 


50 

divided  into  five  classes,  and  different  rates  were  provided  for 
each  class.  The  basis  of  the  classification  of  the  roads  was  the 
amount  of  business  done  and  the  cost  of  operation.  In  the  first 
class  known  as  "the  standard  class,"  was  put  a  number  of  the 
leading  roads  of  the  state  doing  about  the  same  amount  of  bus 
iness  at  approximately  the  same  cost.1  In  the  second  group 
were  placed  all  of  the  roads  doing  a  greater  business  than  the 
roads  of  the  standard  group.3  In  the  remaining  three  groups 
were  placed  the  roads  doing  a  less  business  than  the  roads  of 
the  standard  group. :<  It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  classification 
the  second  group  comprised  the  most  prosperous  roads 
of  the  state  and  the  fifth  the  least  prosperous. 

The  maximum  passenger  rates  fixed  by  the  commission 
varied  from  two  and  one-half  cents  a  mile  for  the  roads  of  the 
second  group  to  four  cents  a  mile  for  the  roads  of  the  fifth  group. 
Freight  was  divided  into  four  classes,  and  for  each  class  a  rate 
on  one  hundred  pounds  of  freight  for  the  first  mile  was  fixed  as 
well  as  the  amount  to  be  added  for  each  additional  mile  from 
one  to  five  ;  from  five  to  twenty  ;  from  twenty  to  thirty  ;  from 
thirty  to  one  hundred  and  forty ;  and  from  one  hundred  and 
forty  to  two  hundred  and  forty-seven  miles.  Car-load  rates  for 
each  class  were  fixed  and  special  car-load  rates  corresponding 
to  the  commodity  tariffs  of  the  present  time  were  made  for  (1) 
flour  and  meal ;  (2)  salt  and  cement ;  (3)  grain  (except  wheat ;) 
(4)  wheat;  (5)  lumber;  (6)  horses  and  mules;  (7)  cattle  and 

1  There  were  ten  roads  in  this  class  as  follows  :     Chicago  and  Alton  ;  Chicago, 
Burlington  and  Quincy  ;  Chicago  and  Northwestern  ;  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pa 
cific  ;  Illinois   Central;   Indiana,  Bloomington  and  Western  ;  Indianapolis  and  Saint 
Louis  ;  Ohio  and  Mississippi ;  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati  and  Saint  Louis  ;  Wabash. 

2  These  were  :      Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern  ;  Michigan  Central ;  Pitts- 
burg,  Fort  Wayne  and  Chicago.     These,    it  will  be   noted,  are  all  Eastern  "trunk 
lines,"  having  very  few  miles  within  the  state. 

The  third  group  comprised  the  following  roads  :  Chicago  and  Eastern  Illinois  ; 
Illinois  and  Saint  Louis  ;  Saint  Louis,  Alton  and  Terre  Haute;  Toledo,  Peoria  and 
Warsaw ;  Western  Union. 

In  the  fourth  group  were  the  Peoria,  Pekin  and  Jacksonville  ;  The  Rock  Island 
and  Peoria  ;  and  the  Saint  Louis,  Rock  Island  and  Chicago.  The  fifth  group  con 
tained  the  remaining  six  roads  of  the  state.  R.  R.  &  W.  Report,  1879,  v-Com.-vii. 

[258] 


51 

hogs;  (8)  sheep  ;  and  (9)  coal.  These  rates  were  fixed  for  the 
roads  of  the  first  or  standard  group.  The  maximum  rates  of  the 
second  group  were  ten  per  cent,  lower  ;  those  of  the  third, 
fourth  and  fifth  groups,  five,  ten  and  fifteen  per  cent,  higher 
respectively. l  The  rates  fixed  by  the  commission  for  the 
standard  group  varied  from  thirty-seven  cents  for  carrying 
one  hundred  pounds  of  merchandise  of  the  first  class  one 
hundred  miles  to  eighteen  and  one-half  cents  fora  similar  haul 
of  merchandise  of  the  fourth  class.  The  standard  rate  on 
wheat  in  car  load  lots  for  a  hundred  miles  was  14.26  cent  per 
hundred  pounds.  The  corresponding  rate  on  coal  was  $1.60  a 
ton. 

In  the  classification  and  fixing  of  rates,  various  principles 
must  have  been  recognized.  A  few  illustrations  will  show  the 
conflicting  influences.  Common  soap,  for  instance,  was  placed 
in  the  fourth  class,  while  fancy  soap  went  into  the  second  class.2 
The  cost  of  hauling  different  kinds  of  soap  would  be  the  same 
and  the  justification  of  placing  different  kinds  of  soap  in  differ 
ent  classes  must  be  found  in  the  fact  that  one  kind  was  more 
valuable  than  the  other.  The  value  of  the  commodity  must, 
therefore,  have  been  recognized  in  fixing  the  rate.  On  the 
other  hand,  butter  in  crocks  was  placed  in  the  first  class,  and 
butter  in  kegs  or  boxes  in  the  second,3  a  clear  recognition  of 
the  "  cost  of  service "  principle.  In  their  report  for  1873,  the 
year  in  which  these  schedules  were  prepared,  the  commission 
ers  state  that  the  justice  of  the  rates  was  the  end  aimed  at  in 
preparing  the  schedules*  but  they  do  not  state  what  basis  they 
took  for  determining  just  rates.  In  the  report  for  the  follow 
ing  year,  however,  the  same  commission,  with  one  change  in 
its  membership,5  discussed  the  question  of  what  constitutes 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1879,  vi,  vii. 

2  Ibid.,  1874,  376. 

3.  Ibid.,  1874,  371. 

4.  Ibid.,  1873,  26, 

5.  Chairman  H.  D.  Cook  had  died  in  November,  1873,  and  had  been  succeeded 
Lv  James  Steele. 

[259] 


52 

reasonable  rates.1  In  the  discussion  the  cost  of  the  road  and 
the  aggregate  cost  of  service  are  both  rejected  as  criteria  in 
determining  reasonable  rates,  and  the  conclusion  is  reached 
that  "there  are  certain  maximum  charges  for  transportation 
which  the  business  of  the  country  can  afford  to  pay  and  be 
yond  which  it  cannot  afford  to  go,"  and  if  the  value  of  the  road 
is  so  high,  that  when  these  maximum  rates  are  charged,  a  rea 
sonable  per  cent,  of  profit  is  not  made,  "the  sooner  its  owners 
cut  down  its  nominal  value  to  such  figures,  or  sell  to  other 
parties  at  such  price  as  will  justify  its  operation  at  reasonable 
rates,  the  better  for  the  community  and  all  concerned/'  As  to 
what  is  a  reasonable  rate  for  the  transportation  of  a  particular 
commodity  the  board  comes  to  no  definite  conclusion  further 
than  that  a  classification  is  necessary  and  that  a  variety  of  cir 
cumstances  enter  in  to  make  it  "'worth  more  to  transport  some 
commodities  than  others.'*  The  commissioners  thus  more  or 
less  definitely  recognize  the  "  value  of  service  "  principle,  or  the 
v  principle  of  "charging  what  the  traffic  will  bear"  as  the  true 
criterion  of  reasonable  rates.  As  we  have  seen,  however,  an 
examination  of  the  classification  which  the  commission  adopt 
ed  shows  that  the  "value  of  service"  principle  was  not  consist 
ently  and  exclusively  followed,  but  that  "cost  of  service"  and 
other  principles  exerted  a  strong  modifying  inflence. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  schedules  of  reasonable  maxi 
mum  rates  were  unsatisfactory  both  to  the  commission  and  to 
the  people,  while  they  were  exceedingly  obnoxious  to  the  rail 
roads.  The  traffic  managers,  who  had  not  been  in  the  habit  of 
following  even  their  own  schedules,  refused  to  follow  those 
which  were  prepared  by  a  body  of  men  whose  authority  over 
them  and  whose  ability  to  deal  with  so  intricate  a  matter  was 
denied.  The  result  was  that  the  roads  paid  scant  attention  to 
the  schedules  and  considered  them  as  in  no  way  binding. 
Again  a  fierce  struggle  over  the  enforcement  of  the  law  broke 
out  in  the  courts. 

i.     R.  K.  &  VV.  Com.    Report,  1874,  21-24. 

[260] 


SECTION   VI. 


THE  FINAL  STRUGGLE  IN  THE  COURTS. 


On  July  1,  1878,  apparently  as  the  result  of  some  agreement 
between  the  different  companies,  rates  at  all  competing  points 
and  at  many  non-competing  points  advanced,  and  the  public 
was  coolly  informed  that  the  advance  in  rates  was  due  to  the 
workings  of  the  new  law.1  The  commissioners  accepted  this 
action  on  the  part  of  the  railroads  as  equivalent  to  an  ultima 
tum  by  them  that  it  wras  their  intention  to  settle  the  points  at 
issue  in  the  courts.  Suits  were  accordingly  commenced  by  the 
commission  against  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railroad 
Company  at  Freeport  and  against  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  at  Urbana  on  the  charge  of  extortion.*  The  commis 
sioners  thought  it  best,  and  in  this  view  they  were  upheld  by 
their  legal  counsellors,  not  to  begin  other  suits  until  the  sched 
ules  which  were  to  be  prepared  by  them  became  prlma  fade 
evidence,  as  they  would  be  on  the  fifteenth  of  January  follow 
ing.  ;i  The  case  against  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railroad 
Company  was  begun  in  the  December  term  of  the  circuit  court, 
was  continued  to  the  March  term,  then  to  the  September  term 
and  again  to  the  March  term,  1875,  to  await  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  on  cases  pending  before  it.4 
The  case  was  later  dismissed  by  the  commission. 5  The  suit 
against  the  Illinois  Central  was  also  dismissed,  the  purpose  of 
the  commissioners  being  to  institute  new  suits  when  the  sched 
ules  went  into  effect. G 

In  testing  the  validity  of  the  law,  the  policy  of  the  com- 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Corn.  Report,  1874,  q,  10. 

2  Ibid.,  8-10. 

3  Ibid.,  1873,  29. 

4  Ibid.,  1873,  I0- 

5  Ibid.,  1875,  17. 

6  Ibid.,  1874,  10. 

[261] 


54 

mission  was  not  to  institute  suits  in  all  cases  where  violations 
of  the  statute  were  found,  but  rather  to  begin  suits  against  the 
most  powerful  corporations  in  cases  in  which  the  various  points 
of  issue  were  clearly  involved.1  The  first  case  in  which  a  de 
cision  of  the  principal  point  of  controversy,  the  right  of  the 
legislature  to  authorize  the  commission  to  make  a  schedule 
which  would  be  prima  facie  evidence,  was  made  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  state,  was  that  of  "  The  People  v.  The  Illinois  Cen 
tral  Kailroad  Company."  This  case  was  begun  at  the  October 
term,  1874,  of  the  Douglas  county  circuit  court.2  Judgment  for 
one  thousand  dollars  was  rendered  against  the  railway  com 
pany  in  this  court3  and  the  case  was  immediately  appealed  to 
the  Supreme  Court.  The  proverbial  delay  of  the  law  was  evi 
denced  in  this  case,  and  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  was 
not  handed  down  until  1880.  By  this  decision  the  judgment  of 
the  circuit  court  was  affirmed  and  the  validity  of  the  law  of  1873 
declared.4  Although  this  was  the  first  case  decided  by  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  state  in  which  the  law  of  1873  was  involved, 
the  right  of  the  state  legislature  to  fix  a  maximum  rate  of 
charges  had  already  been  upheld  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  the 
Neal  Ruggles  case  to  which  reference  has  been  made.5 

The  law  empowering  the  commission  to  fix  schedules  of 
maximum  rates  and  to  compel  the  roads  to  abide  by  them  was 
thus  upheld  by  the  courts  of  Illinois.  It  yet  remained  for  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  to  declare  whether  or  not 
the  constitutional  provision  that  no  law  impairing  the  obliga 
tion  of  a  contract  should  be  passed  by  a  state  legislature  had 
been  violated.  This  point  was  covered  in  a  decision  handed 
down  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  October, 
1876,  in  the  case  of  Munn  v.  Illinois.  The  court  held  in  this 
case  that  the  state  legislature  had  the  right  under  the  constitu- 


1.  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1875,  15. 

2.  Ibid.,  1874,  12. 

3.  Ibid.,  1875,  17. 

4-    95  HI-  313- 

5.     Above,  pp.  28-29. 

[262] 


55 

tion  "to  limit  the  rate  of  charges  for  service  rendered  in  a  pub 
lic  employment,  or  for  the  use  of  property  in  which  the  public 
has  an  interest."1  The  decision  in  this  case  served  as  a  prece 
dent  upon  which  was  based  the  decision  of  many  important 
cases,  commonly  known  as  the  "granger  cases,"  which  came 
up  to  the  supreme  court  from  Iowa  and  Wisconsin.2  After 
years  of  litigation,  the  position  of  the  commission  was  thus 
finally  established  by  the  courts. 


1.  94  U.  S.  113. 

2.  Davidson  &  Stuve,  op.  cit.,  1036. 


[263] 


SECTION  VII. 
GENERAL  LEGISLATION   AND  LITIGATION. 


In  the  preceding  chapters,  the  legislation  which  provided 
a  scheme  for  state  regulation  of  railroads  in  Illinois  has  been 
discussed,  together  with  the  litigation  which  grew  out  of  it  and 
which  finally  firmly  established  the  position  of  the  railroad  and 
warehouse  commission  and  their  right  of  control.  There  re 
mains  for  our  consideration  a  large  body  of  legislation,  which, 
while  lacking  the  importance  of  the  laws  already  considered, 
nevertheless  deserves  mention  in  a  history  of  railway  legisla 
tion.  To  this  should  be  added  some  railway  litigation  arising 
under  laws  already  referred  to  in  this  essay,  though  dating  from 
the  period  prior  to  1870,  which  had  an  important  bearing  in  the 
railway  history  of  the  state. 

Of  the  laws  which  have  not  yet  been  considered,  the  most 
important  are  those  providing  for  the  incorporation  of  railway 
companies  and  defining  the  powers  of  the  companies  so  incor 
porated,  and  the  laws  which  provide  rules  in  the  nature  of  po 
lice  regulations  governing  the  management  of  the  railway  bus 
iness  in  the  state. 

We  have  seen  that  the  constitution  of  1870  prohibited  the 
chartering  of  any  corporation  by  special  laws1  and  that  in  1871 
the  legislature  passed  a  general  incorporation  law  for  railway 
companies. ?  This  law  is  still  in  force  and,  with  a  few  minor 
changes,  is  the  law  governing  the  incorporation  of  railway  com 
panies  at  the  present  time.  In  1877  the  act  was  amended  by 
adding  a  provision  granting  railway  corporations  the  right  to 
purchase  another  company,3  and  in  1891  a  further  amendment 
was  made  to  the  effect  that  a  railway  company  in  this  state 


1  Above,  p.  24. 

2  Above,  p.  26. 

3  Laws  of  Illinois,  1877,  163,  4. 


[264 


57 

which  operates  a  railway  connecting  it  with  a  railway  owned 
by  a  company  of  another  state  might,  acting  by  itself  or  jointly 
with  this  foreign  company,  purchase  the  stock  and  securities 
of  the  connecting  road.1  In  1875  an  act  was  passed  empower 
ing  a  railway  company  operating  other  companies  under  lease 
for  a  period  of  not  less  than  twenty  years  to  buy  or  sell  "the 
remaining  interests,  property  or  franchises  of  such  railroads" 
on  terms  agreed  upon  by  the  parties  to  the  lease.2  A  provision 
was  added  which  forbade  railroads  in  other  states  from  becom 
ing  owners  of  roads  in  this  state  under  the  act,  but  in  1895  this 
restriction  was  removed.3  An  act  of  1883 provided  for  the  con 
solidation  of  corporations  owning  a  railroad  situated  partly  in 
Illinois  and  partly  in  other  states  when  separate  corporations 
are  organized  in  each  state  through  wrhich  the  road  runs.*  In 
1885  railroads  organized  in  this  state  were,  on  complying  with 
certain  conditions,  given  the  power  to  purchase  and  to  hold 
railroads  which  are  located  in  other  states,  but  with  which  they 
connected.5  In  1889  the  acquisition  of  a  railroad  in  this  state  by 
a  corporation  of  another  state  was  made  possible  by  a  law  which 
provided  conditions  under  which  a  corporation  of  another  state 
which  was  in  possession,  or  owned  or  controlled  the  capital 
stock  of  a  railroad  in  this  state,  might  secure  ownership  of  the 
road,0  The  passage  of  these  laws  seems  to  have  been  largely 
due  to  the  demand  for  consolidation  of  railroads  and  to  the 
growing  faith  in  the  advantages  which  consolidation  would 
bring  about.  At  the  same  time  this  legislation  by  its  restrict 
ive  features  shows  the  fear  entertained  by  the  legislature  that 
the  roads  \vould  be  taken  beyond  the  control  of  the  commission. 
The  second  class  of  laws  to  which  I  have  referred,  the  laws 
providing  regulations  as  to  the  details  of  the  management  of 
the  railway  business  of  the  state,  constitutes  the  greater  part 

i  Laws  of  Illinois,  1891,  184-5. 

2  Ibid.,  1875,  96. 

3  Ibid.,  1895,  293-4. 

4  Ibid.,  1883,  124-5. 

5  Ibid.,  1885,  229-231. 
7  Ibid.,  1899,  116-7. 

[265] 


58 

of  the  legislation  which  has  been  enacted  by  the  general  as 
sembly  since  the  commission  was  established  in  its  final  form. 
Before  1870  laws  had  been  passed  at  different  times  containing 
various  provisions  with  regard  to  the  details  of  the  operation 
of  the  railroads,  the  maintenance  of  the  roadbed,  the  speed  of 
trains,  and  matters  of  this  sort.  In  1874  an  act  was  passed  which 
embodied  with  several  additions  the  more  important  provisions 
of  this  character  which  had  been  previously  enacted.  The  act 
contains  provisions  in  regard  to  the  fencing  of  the  track,  sign 
boards  of  warning  at  country  road  crossings,  the  speed  of  trains, 
the  stopping  of  trains  at  draw  bridges  and  railway  crossings, 
the  handling  of  baggage,  etc. 1  Since  this  law,  additional  pro 
visions  concerning  union  depots,2  investing  railway  conductors 
with  police  powers  while  on  duty  on  trains,3  regulating  the 
selling  of  passenger  tickets,4  the  placing  of  interlocking  switch 
es  at  railway  crossings,5  and  others  of  the  same  nature  have 
been  added. 

In  general,  the  laws  just  referred  to  are  conservative  in  their 
character.  They  seem  to  have  been  enacted  with  due  regard 
to  the  rights  of  the  railway  companies  and  the  regulations  which 
have  been  prescribed  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to  insure  the  con 
venience  and  safety  of  the  public  without  imposing  onerous  re 
strictions  upon  the  railway  companies. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  in  regard  to  Illinois  railway  legis 
lation  that  no  laws  restricting  railway  pooling  have  been  en 
acted,  although  many  other  states  have  adopted  restrictive 
legislation  of  this  nature.  Indeed  such  legislation  as  has  been 
enacted  is  on  the  whole  favorable  to  railway  consolidation. 
Not  only  has  the  legislature  not  taken  any  action  toward  the 
prohibiting  of  pooling,  but  the  railroad  and  warehouse  com 
mission  seems  to  have  given  it  little  consideration.  The  atti 
tude  of  the  commissioners,  which  in  all  probability  has  coin- 

1  Revised  Statutes  of  Illinois,  1874,  807-14. 

2  Laws  of  Illinois,  1875,  97-99. 

3  lbid.t  1879,  223-4. 

4  Ibid.,  1875,  8 1 -2. 

5  Ibid.,  1891,  180-82. 

[266] 


59 

cided  with  that  of  the  legislature,  is  given  in  their  report  for 
1886  in  which  they  take  the  ground  that  the  enforcement  of  the 
schedule  of  maximum  rates  will  prevent  the  evils  which  might 
arise  from  pooling  contracts  between  roads  lying  within  the 
state,  and  that  the  state  is  powerless  to  regulate  pooling  con 
tracts  between  inter-state  roads.1  Congress  prohibited  pooling 
by  inter-state  roads  in  1887.  In  the  meetings  of  the  general 
assembly  of  the  state  which  followed,  several  bills  were  intro 
duced  aiming  at  the  prohibition  of  pooling,  but  none  was  able 
to  command  a  majority  of  both  houses.2 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  "tax  grabbing" 
and  "Lake  Front"  laws  as  disturbing  elements  in  the  railway 
situation  in  1869.3  The  importance  of  the  workings  of  these 
laws  in  the  later  history  of  the  state  is  sufficient  to  justify  their 
further  consideration.  The  "tax  grabbing"  law,  which,  it  will 
be  remembered,  offered  inducements  to  local  units  to  issue 
bonds  in  aid  of  railroads,  was  passed  with  the  intention  of  rem 
edying  the  inequalities  of  railway  extension  throughout  the 
state.  The  local  bodies  quickly  took  advantage  of  the  law  and 
over  $15,500,000  of  these  bonds  were  issued  by  various  counties, 
townships,  cities  and  towns  and  registered  with  the  state  au 
ditor.4  In  1871  the  general  assembly  passed  an  act  further  de 
fining  the  method  of  distributing  the  taxes  paid  into  the  state 
treasury  on  the  bond  account  between  the  different  townships, 
cities  and  towns  in  the  same  county  which  had  issued  bonds.5 
In  1874  a  decision  by  the  supreme  court  of  the  state  in  the  case 
of  Ramsey  v.  Hoger  declared  the  law  unconstitutional  on  the 
ground  that  it  interfered  with  the  constitutional  provision 
which  requires  equality  of  taxation  for  state  purposes.  This 
decision  of  the  supreme  court  worked  great  hardship  on  the 
local  units  which,  because  of  the  benefits  which  the  law  held 


1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1866,  xxi. 

2  See  House  and  Senate  Journals. 

3  Above,  p.  22. 

4  Auditor's  report  in  Reports  of  General  Assembly,  1882,  1:200-207. 

5  Laws  of  Illinois,  1871-72,  192-3. 

(267) 


60 

out  to  them,  had  bonded  themselves  heavily  in  aid  of  the  rail 
roads.  In  many  cases  repudiations  of  their  debts  followed l. 
After  the  decision  was  handed  down  the  state  treasurer  was  un 
certain  as  to  the  status  of  over  $430,000  which  had  come  into 
the  state  treasury  as  a  part  of  the  local  bond  fund.3  To  solve  this 
difficulty,  in  1875,  a  law  was  passed  making  the  state  sole 
trustee  of  all  of  the  excess  over  f  8  of  the  state  tax  of  1873,  except 
so  much  as  had  been  carried  to  the  local  bond  fund  and  paid 
out  of  the  treasury  for  the  redemption  of  the  bonds,  and  a 
method  of  refunding  such  excess  was  provided:5  The  excess  of 
76  of  the  state  tax  was  increased  by  the  law  of  1869,  allowing 
the  different  localities  to  devote  part  of  their  state  tax  to  pay 
ing  interest  and  principal  on  their  railway  bonds.  The  pro 
visions  of  this  measure  clearly  showed  the  injustice  of  the  law 
of  1869  as  it  was  made  evident  that  the  state  taxes  were  thereby 
increased  nearly  twenty-five  per  cent.  The  localities  which 
had  not  issued  bonds  were  obliged  to  bear  this  increase,  though 
they  received  no  corresponding  benefits  as  did  the  localities 
which  had  issued  bonds.  The  legislature  from  time  to  time  dis- 
cusssed  the  matter  of  relieving  the  embarrassing  possition  in 
which  the  localities  which  had  issued  bonds  were  placed  by  the 
abrogation  of  the  law,  but  no  action  was  taken/ 

A  repetition  of  the  evils  due  to  the  unlimited  issue  of  rail 
way  aid  bonds  was  made  impossible  by  the  constitution  of  1870. 
One  of  the  sections  which  was  submitted  to  the  people  for  sepa 
rate  vote  and  which  was  endorsed  by  them  provided  that  "no 
county,  city,  town,  township  or  other  municipality  shall  ever 
become  subscriber  to  the  capital  stock  of  any  railroad  or  private 
corporation  or  make  donations  to  or  loan  its  credit  in  aid  of 
such  corporation".  Provision  was,  however,  made  for  the  is 
suance  of  aid  already  voted.  A  law  of  1874  prohibited  the  is 
suance  after  1877  of  bonds  which  had  been  voted  before  1870 

1  76  in.  432. 

2  Davidson  and  Stuve,  935,  note. 

3  Reports  of  the  general  assembly,  1875. 

4  Davidson  and  Stuve,  op.  cit.  935;  House  and  Senate  Journals. 

(268) 


61 

and  not  yet  issued.1  In  1877  the  liability  for  the  issuance  of 
bonds  voted  was  extended  to  1880 2,  and  a  law  of  1883  finally 
decided  against  any  further  issuance  after  that  year  except 
under  certain  conditions.3 

The  "Lake  Front"  act  proved  to  be  equally  as  disturbing 
an  element  as  the  "tax  grabbing"  law,  but  its  influence  was  felt 
in  Chicago  alone,  while  the  evils  of  the  "tax  grabbing"  law  were 
felt  throughout  the  state.  The  act  became  the  basis  of  a  strug 
gle  in  the  courts  which  lasted  for  twenty  years.  On  petition 
made  within  four  months  after  the  passage  of  the  act,  the 
United  States  circuit  court  issued  an  injunction  restraining  the 
city  of  Chicago  from  releasing  and  the  railway  companies  from 
occupying  the  land  granted  for  depot  purposes.  The  record  of 
this  proceeding  was  destroyed  in  the  great  Chicago  fire  of  1871 
and  was  never  fully  restored.4  The  opposition  to  the  act  was 
so  determined  that  in  1873  it  was  repealed.5  The  repeal,  how 
ever,  was  of  little  value  in  effecting  a  definite  settlement  of 
the  rights  of  the  respective  parties.  In  1883,  the  attorney-gen 
eral  of  the  state  began  proceedings  in  the  circuit  court  of  Cook 
county  to  quiet  title  and  remove  the  cloud  upon  the  title  of  the 
state  to  the  submerged  lands.  The  case  was  removed  to  the 
United  States  circuit  court  for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois. 
The  Illinois  Central  defended  its  title  by  alleging  the  uncon 
stitutionally  of  the  repealing  act  of  1873  on  the  ground  that  it 
impaired  the  validity  of  contracts  ;  that  it  interfered  with  vested 
rights ;  and  that  it  was  in  violation  of  the  provision  of  the  con 
stitution  of  1870  which  prohibited  the  release  of  impairment  of 
any  tax  imposed  upon  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad.6  The  cir 
cuit  court  held  in  a  decision  handed  down  in  1888  that  the 
effect  of  the  repealing  act  was  to  abrogate  the  cession  of  the 
submerged  lands  to  the  railway  company.  It  was  also  held  by 

1  Revised  Statutes  of  Illinois,  1874,  797. 

2  Laws  of  Illinois,  1877,  157-8. 

3  Ibid.,  1883,  122,  3. 

4  A.  T.  Andreas,  History  of  Chicago,  111:92. 

5  Laws  of  Illinois,  1873-4,  119. 

6  Andreas,  III:  192. 

(269) 


62 

the  court  that  the  return  to  the  railway  companies,  at  their  re 
quest,  by  the  comptroller  of  Chicago,  of  the  money  deposited 
by  them  as  the  first  installment  to  be  paid  to  the  city  for  the 
land  for  depot  purposes  had  deprived  them  of  the  benefit  which 
had  accrued  to  them  from  the  tender  and  the  repeal  of  the  act 
accordingly  left  the  title  in  the  city  of  Chicago.1  The  circuit 
court  further  confirmed  the  title  of  the  road  to  the  piers  and 
docks  then  built  out  into  the  lake  so  far  as  they  did  not  extend 
beyond  the  point  of  practical  navigability,  but  perpetually  en 
joined  the  company  from  erecting  further  structures  over  or 
filling  in  the  bed  of  the  lake  between  Chicago  River  and  Six 
teenth  street. 2  The  case  was  appealed  and  was  tried  at  the 
October  term,  1892,  of  the  Supreme  court  of  the  United  States. 
The  decision  of  the  lower  court  was  sustained,  a  majority  of 
the  court  holding,  with  regard  to  the  act  of  1869  and  its  repeal, 
that  "it  was  not  competent  for  the  legislature  to  thus  deprive 
the  state  of  its  ownership  of  the  submerged  lands  in  the  harbor 
of  Chicago,  and  of  the  consequent  control  of  its  waters ;  and 
the  attempted  session  of  the  act  of  April  16,  1869,  was  inopera 
tive  to  affect,  modify,  or  in  any  respect  to  control  the  sover 
eignty  and  dominion  of  the  state  over  the  lands,  or  its  owner 
ship  thereof,  and  any  such  attempted  operation  of  the  act  was 
annulled  by  the  repealing  act  of  April  15,  1873,  which  to  that 
extent  was  valid  and  effective". 3  The  claim  to  the  land  grant 
ed  for  depot  purposes  was  not  revived  by  the  railway  company. 
In  another  attempt  made  recently  by  the  Illinois  Central  to  se 
cure  title  under  its  charter  to  submerged  land  recovered  by  it, 
the  superior  court  of  Cook  county  held  that  the  company  had 
no  right  under  the  charter  to  take  possession  of  land  submerged 
beneath  Lake  Michigan.  In  this  decision,  the  court  was  sus 
tained  by  the  Supreme  court  of  Illinois  in  1899*  and  by  the 


1  Moses,  op.  cit.  II ;  782-3. 

2  184  U.  S.  87. 

3  146  U.  S.,  387. 

4  173  111.  471. 

(270) 


63 

Supreme  court  of  the  United  States  in  1900 1.  Appeal  was  taken 
to  the  state  to  the  decision  of  the  circuit  court  in  1888  as  to 
the  right  of  the  railway  company  to  the  piers  built  out  into  the 
lake  but  the  decision  was  affirmed  by  the  circuit  court  of  ap 
peals  in  1899 8  and  by  the  Supreme  court  of  the  United  States 
in  1902s  Here  the  matter  rests  for  the  present,  and  the  decis 
ion  of  the  Supreme  court  seems  to  be  regarded  as  a  final  settle 
ment  of  the  long  controversy. 


1  176  U.  S.  646. 

2  91  Federal  Reporter,  955. 

3  184  U.S.  77- 

(271) 


SECTION  VIII. 
RAILWAY  CONSTRUCTION  AND  CONSOLIDATION. 


In  1870  Illinois  ihad  4,823 l  miles  of  railroad  within  her 
boundaries.  In  the  thirty  years  since  that  date  the  railway 
mileage  of  the  state  has  more  than  doubled,  the  mileage  for 
1892  being  11, 031 2.  The  increase  in  railway  construction  has 
not  been  uniform  throughout  this  period,  but  there  have  been 
two  distinct  periods  of  rapid  construction.  The  first  of  these 
periods  beginning  with  1870  extends  to  about  1876.  In  the  five 
years  from  June  30,  1871,  to  June  30,  1876,  the  railway  mile 
age  increased  2,736  miles,  an  average  of  547  miles  a  year3.  The 
rapid  extension  of  the  railroads  during  this  period  was  probably 
due  in  great  measure  to  the  aid  to  railway  construction  which 
was  being  granted  through  local  aid  bonds.  For  three  years 
there  was  somewhat  of  a  lull  in  railway  building,  but  in  1879  a 
second  period  of  rapid  extension  began  during  which,  however5 
the  building  of  new  lines  of  road  was  not  carried  on  so  rapidly 
as  it  had  been  in  the  earlier  period.  In  the  nine  years  from 
June  30,  1879,  to  June  30,  1888,  the  number  of  miles  of  railroad 
in  the  state  increased  from  7559 4  to  9918s,  an  increase  of  2,359 
miles  in  the  nine  years.  The  year  of  greatest  increase  during  this 
period  was  1883-84,  when  375  miles  of  road  were  built6.  This 
was  a  period  of  much  more  rational  development  than  wTas  the 
earlier  one.  The  extension  of  the  railroads  was  in  the  main 
due  to  an  increased  need  for  railway  service  and  not  to  an  ar- 


I 

Poor,  Manual,  1871-72,  xxxiii. 

2 

R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report, 

1902,  92. 

3 

/£*#.,  1871-76. 

4 

/&#.,  1879,  viii. 

5 

Ibid.,  1888,  xxviii,  xxix. 

6 

7£zV/.,  1879-88. 

(272) 

65 

tificial  stimulus  such  as  was  furnished  by  the  railway  aid 
bonds.  In  the  fifteen  years  succeeding  1888  only  1,100  miles 
of  road  have  been  built.  It  is,  therefore,  fair  to  assume  that 
Illinois  had  by  1888  reached  a  state  of  equilibrium  in  which 
railway  development  would  keep  pace  with  the  slow  but  steady 
increase  of  industrial  development. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  increase  in  mileage  in 
Illinois  has  been  great,  it  by  no  means  represents  the  full  in 
crease  in  the  usefulness  of  the  railroads  which  has  come  about 
in  the  same  time.  The  improvements  which  have  been  intro 
duced  during  the  past  thirty-three  years  have  brought  to  the 
roads  an  increase  in  efficiency  which  is  several  times  as  great 
as  the  increase  in  mileage.  In  1871,  of  the  5,490  miles  of  track 
in  Illinois,  more  than  ninety  per  cent,  was  laid  with  iron  rails 
weighing  from  thirty  to  fifty-six  pounds  to  the  yard1;  by  1902 
ninety-nine  and  four-tenths  per  cent.2  of  the  mileage  of  the 
roads  was  laid  with  steel  rails  weighing  from  thirty-five  to  one 
hundred  pounds  to  the  yard.  In  1871  the  road  way  was  bal 
lasted  only  in  those  places  where  trouble  was  caused  during 
the  wet  season1;  in  1902  eighty-five  per  cent,  of  the  mileage 
was  ballasted2.  In  1875,  in  the  7,100  miles  of  road  in  the  state, 
there  were  fifteen  stone  arch  bridges3,  but  in  1902,  with  only 
an  increase  of  about  fifty  per  cent,  in  the  mileage,  there  were  in 
use  444  masonry  bridges  and  2156  iron  and  steel  bridges4.  In 
1870,  there  were  99|  miles  of  double  main  track  in  the  state5, 
or  about  1-60  as  many  miles  of  double  as  of  single  track;  in 
1902,  the  number  of  miles  of  second,  third,  fourth  and  addi 
tional  main  tracks  was  1,827 6,  about  1-6  the  mileage  of  the  sin 
gle  main  track.  In  1870  also  the  protection  of  a  crossing  by 
an  interlocking  switching  device  was  unknown,  but  by  1902, 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1895,  xi. 

2  Ibid.,  1902,  179. 

3  Ibid.,  1895,  4. 

4  Ibid.,  1902,  183. 

5  Ibid.,  1871,  Table  "  H." 

6  Ibid.,  1902,  79. 

(273) 


66 

there  were  246  of  such  devices  in  use.1  These  merely  illustrate 
the  many  improvements  that  have  been  introduced.  In  ad 
dition,  block  signalling  systems  have  been  put  into  operation, 
curves  and  grades  have  been  reduced,  tracks  have  been  elevated 
and  many  changes  of  like  benefit  have  been  effected.  Follow 
ing  the  direction  of  the  improvements  which  have  been  men 
tioned,  and  largely  as  a  result  of  them,  have  come  changes  in 
the  transportation  of  passengers  and  freight  which  have  revo 
lutionized  the  railway  industry.  The  size  and  power  of  the 
engines  and  the  capacity  of  the  cars  have  been  increased,  longer 
trains  have  come  into  use  and  a  much  higher  rate  of  speed  has 
been  attained  by  both  passenger  and  freight  trains. 

The  influence  of  these  changes  on  Illinois  has  been  great. 
It  is  not  confined  to  the  mere  fact  that  they  have  secured  an 
increased  efficiency  for  the  roads  of  the  state.  With  the  im 
provements  which  have  been  introduced  has  come  a  reduction 
in  the  rates  which  would  have  been  almost  impossible  without 
them.  This  reduction  in  rates  has  caused  a  great  extension 
in  the  market  for  the  grain  of  [llinois  and  of  the  Northwest, 
and  an  increased  demand  has  followed  as  an  inevitable  result. 
The  extension  of  the  market  caused  by  the  reduction  in  rates 
has  made  it  possible  for  the  states  of  the  West  and  Northwest 
to  supplant  Illinois  in  the  production  of  wheat  and  the  farmers 
of  the  state  have  consequently  been  forced  to  turn  from  wheat- 
raising  to  corn-raising  which  the  reduced  rates  made  a  much 
more  profitable  industry  than  it  had  previously  been.  This 
change  has  in  the  end  probably  proved  of  greater  benefit  to  the 
agricultural  interests  of  the  state. 2 

Two  other  results  of  importance  in  the  railway  situation 
in  Illinois  have  ensued.  The  extended  markets  for  the  corn- 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1901,  ix. 

2  In  1869  Illinois  ranked  as  the  first  wheat  producing  state   in  the  union  with  a 
production  of  30,128,405  bushels;  by  1899,  this  production  had  decreased  1019,795,500 
bushels  and  the  state  was  fourteenth  in  amount  of  wheat  produced.     The  production 
of  corn  during  the  same  year  increased  from  129,921,395  bushels  to  398, 149,140  bushels, 
Illinois  ranking  first  in  both  years.     Census  1900,  vol.  VI,  Part  II,  pp.  80,  93. 

[274] 


67 

modities  of  the  Northwest  has  created  the  need  for  extended 
railroad  facilities  to  transport  them  across  the  state,  and  the 
world  market  which  has  been  thrown  open  to  Illinois  commod 
ities  has  led  to  an  enlarged  prosperity  and  at  the  same  time 
to  an  increased  dependence  by  the  people  of  the  state  on  the 
welfare  of  the  railway  system.  Railways  have  thus  become  of 
transcendent  importance  to  the  well  being  of  the  state  not  only 
through  the  extension  that  has  been  made  in  the  lines  them 
selves,  but  also  through  the  changed  conditions  that  have  been 
brought  about  by  the  improvements  in  the  management  of 
the  transportation  industry. 

There  is  a  second  feature  which  has  marked  the  develop 
ment  of  the  railway  industry  in  Illinois  and  which  has  had  an 
equal  importance  with  the  changes  in  railway  construction  and 
equipment  in  securing  a  better  service  to  the  people  of  the  state. 
This  feature  of  railway  development  is  the  growth  of  railway 
consolidation.  In  this  process  the  two  distinct  lines  along 
which  consolidation  has  progressed  in  the  United  States  at 
large1  have  been  evident  in  Illinois.  During  the  earlier  part 
of  the  period  under  consideration,  consolidation  was  chiefly 
effected  by  the  union  of  short  connecting  lines.  In  the  latter 
part  of  the  period,  the  chief  method  by  which  consolidation  has 
been  brought  about  has  been  the  purchasing  or  leasing  of  a  mi 
nor  road  by  one  of  the  great  railway  systems. 

On  June  30,  1871,  the  average  number  of  miles  of  road  in 
Illinois  operated  by  the  different  companies  was  263. 2  By  1875, 
the  average  had  decreased  to  142, 3  and  from  that  time  until 
1900  it  had  not  varied  much,  the  average  for  1900  being  161 
miles/  From  these  figures  it  might  seem  that  there  had  been 
no  tendency  toward  railway  consolidation  in  Illinois,  but  there 
had  been  a  movement  toward  short  lines  of  road.  The  error 
lies,  however,  in  taking  the  number  of  miles  owned  in  Illinois 

1  Newcomb,  "Railway  Economics",  120-1. 

2  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.     Report,  1871,  Appendix  "H",  II. 

3  Ibid,,  1875,  300-1. 

4  Ibid.,  1900,  Lxxxii-Lxxxvi. 

[275] 


68 

the  various  companies  operating  in  the  state  as  a  basis  for  es 
timating  the  amount  of  consolidation  that  has  taken  place.  The 
true  basis  for  the  estimate  is  the  whole  number  of  miles  owned 
by  the  roads  rather  than  that  part  which  lies  within  the  state. 
The  significant  fact  for  our  consideration  is  that  the  roads  of 
the  state  have  become  parts  of  great  railway  systems.  The  fol 
lowing  table1  shows  the  progress  of  consolidation  as  far  as  it 
can  be  traced  statistically.  It  does  not  include  consolidations 
which  have  been  effected  without  any  change  in  the  operating 
organizations.  The  mileage  given  is  the  total  mileage  of  all 
roads  which  operate  with  in  the  state. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  table  that  there  has  been  a  great 
increase  in  the  number  of  roads  in  the  state  which  are  parts  of 
great  railway  systems.  In  1871  only  a  little  over  one-half  of 
the  mileage  of  the  state  represented  part  of  a  railroad  over  six 
hundred  miles  long  and  the  length  of  the  longest  road  which 
had  any  mileage  in  the  state  was  1,224  miles. z  By  1900,  eighty- 
nine  per  cent  of  the  mileage  was  part  of  railway  systems  over 
six  hundred  miles  long,  and  one  road  running  through  the  state 
operated  6,410  miles  of  line. 

This  consolidation,  the  extent  of  which  is  shown  by  the 
table,  has  secured  two  benefits  to  the  travelling  and  shipping 
public.  Better  service  has  been  secured  than  would  have  been 
possible  if  it  had  remained  necessary  for  each  shipment  to  tra 
verse  several  different  lines.  Consolidation  has  also  made  pos 
sible  lower  rates  on  account  of  the  reduction  in  operating  ex 
penses  which  has  been  secured  by  the  bringing  of  several  roads 
under  one  management.  * 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  railway  system  of  Illinois  has  not 
only  grown  enormously  since  1870,  but  its  usefulness  has  also 
been  increased  by  the  introduction  of  improvements  and  through 
the  consolidations  which  have  taken  place.  As  a  result  of  these 

1  The  table  is  adopted  from  the  one  in  the    Reports  of    the  Statistician  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission.     (See  next  page). 

2  The  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railway  Company. 

3  The  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  Railway  Company. 

4  Newcomb,     op.  cit.,  122. 

[276] 


69 


changes,  lower  rates  have  ensued.  There  has,  therefore,  been 
an  increase  in  efficiency  far  greater  than  would  be  indicated  by 
the  mere  increase  in  mileage. 


ITEMS. 

Mileage 
over  600 

Mileage 
from 
300-600 

Mileage 
from 
100-300 

Mileage 
under 
100 

Total 

1871 
Number  of  roads 

4 

3 

7 

17 

Aggregate  mileage  in  class 

3661 

1448 

1368 

133 

6610 

Per  cent,  of  total  mileage 

55 

22 

21 

100 

1875 
Number  of  roads  

9 

5 

12 

24 

50 

Aggregate  mileage  in  class  

9309 

2313 

2312 

1178 

15112 

Per  cent,  of  total  mileage  

62 

15 

15 

100 

1880 
Number  of  Roads 

9 

6 

16 

17 

48 

Aggregate  mileage  in  class 

13859 

2362 

2923 

775 

19919 

Per  cent,  of  total  mileage 

69 

12 

15 

100 

1885 
Number  of  roads  

11 

10 

17 

19 

57 

Aggregate  mileage  in  class   

22234 

4317 

3396 

719 

30606 

Per  cent  of  total  mileage  

73 

14 

11 

2 

100 

1890 
Number  of  roads  

14 

13 

16 

20 

63 

Aggregate  mileage  in  class  

36826 

5737 

3128 

676 

40367 

Per  cent,  of  total  mileage.  . 

76 

14 

11 

2 

100 

1895 
Number  of  roads  

14 

12 

14 

27 

67 

Aggregate  mileage  in  class. 

35008 

5149 

2617 

817 

43591 

Per  cent,  of  total  mileage  

80 

12 

6 

2 

100 

1900 
Number  of  roads 

21 

13 

27 

68 

Aggregate  mileage  in  class 

50810 

2914 

2565 

805 

57094 

Per  cent,  of  total  mileage   

89 

5 

5 

1 

100 

In  connection  with  this  increase  in  the  efficiency  and  mile 
age  of  the  steam  railroads  must  be  noted  the  growth  of  interur- 
ban  electric  railways.  In  1899  when  the  reports  of  the  electric 
roads  were  for  the  first  time  compiled  separately  by  the  com 
mission,  the  total  mileage  of  elevated  and  interurban  electric 
lines  reporting  was  97.06.  (Report  1899,  III.)  This  mileage 
more  than  tripled  in  the  following  three  years  aggregating  in 
1902,352.35  miles.  (Report  1902,  8.)  This  movement  which 

[277] 


70 

is  yet  in  its  infancy  bids  fair  to  become  a  factor  of  great  import 
ance  in  the  transportation  interests  of  the  state.  It  is  yet  too 
early  to  determine  whether  the  electric  interurban  lines  will 
seriously  decrease  the  earnings  of  the  steam  railroads  by  their 
competition  in  the  local  passenger  traffic  or  whether  by  serving 
as  "friends"  to  the  steam  roads,  they  may  not  actually  prove  of 
benefit  to  them.  However  this  may  be  it  is  certain  that  by 
the  extension  of  passenger  freight  and  express  facilities  into 
the  heart  of  rural  districts,  a  benefit  of  inestimable  value  will 
be  conferred  upon  much  territory  which  must  otherwise  be 
practically  devoid  of  easily  accessible  means  of  communication. 


[278 


SECTION  IX. 


LATER  WORK  OF  THE  COMMISSION. 


By  1880,  as  we  have  seen,  the  authority  of  the  commission 
and  the  validity  of  the  restrictive  legislation  were  firmly  estab 
lished  by  the  courts.  The  commission  has  consequently  since 
that  time  been  able  to  carry  on  its  work  without  being  ham 
pered  by  delays  in  litigation.  During  this  later  period,  as  in 
the  earlier  one,  the  fixing  of  maximum  rates  has  occupied  a 
prominent  place  in  the  work  of  the  commission.  The  first 
schedule  of  maximum  rates  went  into  effect  in  1874.  By  1881, 
a  feeling  that  a  change  in  the  conditions  since  that  time  had 
made  necessary  a  new  schedule  caused  the  general  assembly  to 
adopt  a  joint  resolution  requesting  the  commission  to  revise 
the  schedule. '  In  response  to  this  request,  the  first  general  re 
vision  of  the  schedule  of  maximum  rates  was  made.  For  the 
purpose  of  the  schedule,  two  classes  of  roads  were  made  in 
stead  of  the  five  classes  into  which  they  were  divided  for  the 
schedule  of  1874.  The  commissioners  made  no  definite  state 
ment  as  to  the  basis  of  classification,  but  a  general  estimate  of 
the  prosperity  of  the  roads  seemed  to  be  the  controlling  consid 
eration.  The  maximum  passenger  rate  was  fixed  at  three  cents 
a  mile  for  the  roads  of  both  classes.  The  freight  rates  of  the 
schedule  of  1881  were  from  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent,  lower 
than  the  rates  of  the  schedule  of  1873,  and  according  to  the 
commissioners,  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-three  per  cent,  lower 
than  the  rates  in  the  adjoining  states  of  Wisconsin  and  Missouri 
where  the  rates  wrere  fixed  by  legislation.2  The  reduction  in 
the  rates  of  this  schedule  as  compared  with  those  of  the  previ 
ous  one  corresponded  closely  with  the  actual  reduction  in  rates 

1.  Senate  Journal,  1881,  845. 

2.  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.     Report,  1881,  15-18. 

[279] 


72 

which  had  taken  place  throughout  the  country  during  the  pe 
riod.1 

The  rates  which  were  adopted  by  the  schedule  of  1881 
proved  satisfactory  to  the  managers  of  the  different  roads,  and 
they  signified  a  general  willingness  to  conform  their  charges  to 
schedule  rates."  Since  1881,  changes  in  the  schedules  have 
been  made  almost  every  year  .  These  changes  hav7e  taken  place 
chiefly  through  variations  in  the  classification  of  freight.  The 
last  general  revision  of  the  schedules  under  which  the  roads  are 
working  at  the  present  time  went  into  effect  January  1,  1900. 
By  it  the  uniform  maximum  passenger  rate  of  three  cents  a 
mile  is  retained.  Freight  is  divided  into  ten  classes,  and  in  ad 
dition  to  these,  special  rates  are  made  for  (1 )  horses  and  mules, 
(2)  cattle,  (3)  hogs,  (4)  sheep,  (5)  wheat,  (6)  grain  except 
wheat,  (7)  lumber,  (8)  salt,  and  (9)  coal.3 

The  hearing  and  adjusting  of  complaints  has  proved  one  of 
the  most  important  duties  of  the  commission  during  the  latter 
period.  The  policy  of  arbitrating  complaints  was  undertaken 
in  1878,  while  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  of  1873  wras  still 
undecided.*  This  policy  proved  to  be  very  satisfactory  in  prac 
tice,  and,  although  undertaken  as  a  temporary  measure,  was 
continued  as  a  permanent  policy.  In  1893,  the  commission 
adopted  rules  of  practice  to  govern  the  method  of  trial  of  com 
plaints  brought  before  it  for  its  adjustment.5  In  most  cases  the 
railroads  have  shown  a  willingness  to  comply  with  the  decisions 
of  the  commission,  and  as  a  result  disagreements  between  the 
shippers  and  the  roads  have  had  a  speedy  settlement  without 
resort  to  the  courts.  This  has  meant  a  considerable  saving  of 
time  and  expense  and  has  brought  each  party  to  a  clearer  under 
standing  of  the  rights  of  the  other.  The  complaints  to  the  com 
mission  arise  from  many  different  causes.  Of  these  causes  dis 
crimination  and  extortion  are  probably  the  most  important, 

i  Hadley,  104. 

-2.  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1882,  xvi. 

3  Ibid.,  Schedule  of  rates. 

4  Ibid.t  Report,  1878,  xvii,  xviii. 

5  Ibid.,  1893,  6,  153-59- 

[280] 


73 

and  the  adjusting  of  complaints  arising  from  these  two  sources 
has  been  productive  of  great  benefit.  Since  the  passage  in  1891 
of  the  act  providing  for  the  determination  by  the  commission 
of  the  necessity  for  the  location  of  interlocking  switches  at  rail 
way  crossings,  action  on  petitions  for  the  location  of  such 
switches  has  been  one  of  the  important  functions  of  the  com 
mission.  In  1878,  the  commission  commenced  the  practice  of 
inspecting  the  roads  of  the  state.1  This  additional  duty  which 
has  been  assumed  by  succeeding  commissions  has  greatly  in 
creased  their  usefulness.  When  the  physical  condition  of  the 
road  or  the  equipment  is  deemed  insufficient  for  the  safety  of 
the  public,  an  order  for  the  improvement  of  the  deficiency  is 
issued  by  the  commission  to  the  railway  company.  In  this  res 
pect,  also,  the  companies  have  exhibited  a  willingness  to  obey 
the  orders  of  the  commission,  and  the  roads  have  thus  been 
kept  in  a  sound  physical  condition. 

The  conferences  which  the  commissions  of  the  different 
states  have  held  furnishes  another  feature  of  the  work  of  the 
Illinois  commission  which  is  worthy  of  mention  on  account  of 
the  beneficial  results  in  the  way  of  railway  regulation  which 
may  be  secured  in  this  way.  The  first  national  convention  of 
state  railway  commissioners  was  held  at  Springfield  in  1875. 
Succeeding  conventions  were  held  in  1878,  1879  and  1881.  After 
1881  this  first  movement  for  the  conference  of  state  commissions 
came  to  an  end.  In  1889  the  movement  was  revived  by  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission.  An  invitation  was  extended 
by  this  body  to  all  of  the  state  commissions  to  attend  a  confer 
ence.  The  invitation  was  accepted,  and  beginning  with  1889, 
the  commissions  of  the  various  states,  together  with  the  Inter 
state  Commerce  Commission  and  representatives  of  the  rail 
roads  have  met  in  annual  conference.  The  questions  which 
have  been  discussed  at  the  conferences  are  especially  those 
features  of  railway  regulation  which  require  uniform  action  by 
the  state  and  federal  governments.  Classification  and  railway 

1  R.  R.  &  W.  Com.  Report,  1878,  xviii. 

2  Ibid.,  1879,  247-59. 

[281] 


74 

accounting,  for  instance,  matters  in  which  uniformity  is  espec 
ially  desirable,  have  been  given  particular  attention.  Although 
the  practical  results  of  these  conferences  have  not  been  import 
ant,  they  furnish  on  the  whole  a  good  medium  through  which 
the  incongruities  in  the  railway  legislation  of  the  different 
states  can  be  revealed  and  state  regulation  made  more  effective 
by  securing  a  greater  degree  of  uniformity  in  the  methods  em 
ployed  by  the  different  sovereignties. 


[282] 


SECTION  X. 

CONCLUSION. 

For  thirty  years  Illinois  has  endeavored  to  control  her  rail 
roads  by  means  of  the  strong  commission.  It  cannot  be  claimed 
that  complete  success  has  been  attained  in  remedying  the  many 
evils,  which  have  been  in  large  measure  due  to  the  unsettled 
condition  of  the  transportation  industry.  But  although  gross 
abuses  have  existed  in  the  past,  and  in  some  instances  still  exist, 
the  work  of  the  commission  has  justified  its  establishment.  It 
is  true  that  its  usefulness  during  the  first  ten  years  of  its  his 
tory  was  greatly  impaired  by  the  struggle  which  it  was  forced 
to  carry  on  in  the  courts,  yet  during  that  period  it  was  by  no 
means  a  useless  body,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  it  was 
carrying  on  the  fight  which  must  inevitably  have  arisen  be 
tween  the  railroads  and  the  people  before  the  roads  would  sub 
mit  to  public  control.  By  1880  the  courts  had  finally  estab 
lished  the  validity  of  the  law  under  which  the  commission  was 
working,  and  the  commission  was  left  free  to  carry  out  its  work 
without  hindrance.  But  by  this  time  the  need  for  the  exercise 
of  the  authority  of  the  commission  had  greatly  diminished. 
The  evils  due  to  the  over-development  of  the  roads  were  passing 
away  as  the  population  and  business  of  the  state  increased,  and 
the  abuses  of  rapid  railway  building  were  remedied  as  the  has 
tily  built  roads  were  placed  on  a  sound  basis.  One  of  the  most 
potent  influences  in  securing  the  correction  of  railway  abuses 
was  the  fact  that  the  commission  had  the  unquestioned  power, 
with  the  aid  of  the  courts,  to  force  compliance  with  the  law 
and  with  its  own  decisions.  The  railroads  recognized  this  pow 
er  and  confirmed  their  management  to  the  requirements  of  the 
law.  Thus  the  commission,  without  being  called  upon  to  rem 
edy  actual  abuses,  exercised  a  strong  potential  influence  in  se 
curing  the  correction  of  evils.  This  fact,  notwithstanding  the 
apparent  diminution  in  the  need  for  the  commission  as  railway 

[283] 


76 

conditions  have  changed,  furnishes  an  important  element  in 
the  justification  of  the  continuance  of  the  commission. 

The  schedule  of  maximum  rates  which  the  commission  pre 
pares  is  of  far  less  importance  than  it  was  when  the  first  one 
was  prepared  in  1874.  The  railroads  have  in  a  large  measure 
come  to  a  realization  that  "charging  what  the  traffic  will  not 
bear"  in  the  guise  of  "charging  what  the  traffic  will  bear"  is 
fully  as  detrimental  to  their  interests  as  it  is  to  the  interests 
of  the  public,  and  attempts  at  extortionate  charges  have  been 
largely  abolished.  Further  than  this,  the  competition  between 
points  where  competition  is  possible  serves  to  keep  down  com 
petitive  rates  to  a  reasonable  level,  and  through  the  operation 
of  the  "long  and  short  haul"  clause  of  the  Illinois  law  and  that 
of  the  interstate  commerce  law,  reasonable  rates  between  non- 
competing  points  is  secured, 

But  complaint  has  arisen  from  some  sources  that  the  com 
mission  no  longer  fills  a  positive  place,  but  that  it  has  come  to 
furnish  merely  an  opportunity  for  political  "graft"  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  state  treasury.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in 
such  criticism  of  the  commission  of  today,  it  is  nevertheless 
true  that  it  still  does  a  work  of  positive  value  to  the  state.  The 
general  surveillance  which  the  commission  exercises  over  the 
state  still  further  justifies  its  existence  and  continuance.  It 
furnishes  a  permanent  body  to  which  the  legislature  can  assign 
the  execution  of  matters  connected  with  the  railroads  ;  it  ex 
ercises  a  general  supervision  over  the  physical  condition  of  the 
roads  of  the  state ;  it  collects  and  presents  to  the  public  statis 
tics  in  regard  to  the  financial  condition  and  management  of  the 
roads  ;  it  provides  the  only  competent  body  to  study  the  rail 
way  situation  and  to  recommend  to  the  legislature  measures 
which  would  be  of  benefit  both  to  railroads  and  to  the  people; 
and,  finally,  it  furnishes  the  most  convenient  means  by  which 
the  state  can  keep  in  touch  with  the  work  of  the  federal  gov 
ernment  and  the  other  states,  and  thus  make  possible  that 
united  action  on  the  part  of  the  different  sovereignties  which 
is  essential  to  effective  control. 

[284] 


77 

Although  the  work  of  the  commission  has  thus  been  of 
great  benefit  to  the  state,  a  few  changes  in  the  law  might  great 
ly  increase  its  efficiency.  The  law  establishing  the  commission 
provides  for  the  appointment  of  all  three  members  of  the  board 
at  one  time  for  a  term  of  two  years.  Although  the  disadvant 
age  of  the  short  term  has  been  in  some  measure  counteracted 
by  the  general  practice  of  retaining  the  same  commissioners  in 
office  during  the  four  year  term  of  the  governor,  the  efficiency 
of  the  commission  is  lessened  by  the  fact  that  all  the  mem 
bers  of  the  board  retire  at  the  same  time  and  their  duties  must 
be  taken  up  by  men  unfamiliar  with  the  workings  of  the  office. 
This  defect  could  be  easily  remedied  by  a  plan  which  the  com 
mission  proposes,  *  in  accordance  with  which  the  term  of  office 
of  the  commissioners  would  be  extended  to  six  years  and  one 
member  of  the  board  would  retire  every  two  years.  There 
would  then  be  only  one  new  man  on  the  board  after  each  change. 
The  usefulness  of  the  commission  could  be  further  increased  if 
the  power  which  it  now  exercises  over  railroads  should  be  ex 
tended  to  include  sleeping-car  and  express  companies.2  These 
businesses  are  analogous  to  the  railway  business  and  are  sub 
ject  to  many  similar  evils.  To  this  power  should  be  added 
also  the  authority  of  the  commission  to  require  reports  of  the 
same  character  as  the  reports  of  the  railway  companies  from 
telegraph  and  telephone  companies  and  from  street  railway 
companies.  The  commission  should  also  be  given  the  power  to 
decide  in  regard  to  the  equipment  of  crossings  of  street  rail 
ways  and  steam  railroads  with  interlocking  devices. 3  This  last 
power  the  commission  claims,  but  its  right  to  exercise  it  is  ques 
tioned.4 

There  has  been  in  the  past  a  considerable  waste  of  capital 
through  the  building  of  roads  which  paralleled  existing  lines  of 

1.  R.  R.  £  VV.  Com.     Report,  1880,  9. 

2.  The   interstate  commerce  commission    has  recommended  that  its  power  be 
extended  in  this  way. 

3.  R.  R.  &  VV.  Com.     Report,  1898,  xii-xiii. 

4.  Ibid.,  xii. 


78 

road  or  which  were  built  where  the  business  was  not  sufficient 
to  justify  their  construction.  With  the  disappearance  of  the 
idea  that  competition  of  different  lines  would  secure  benefits 
to  the  public,  should  come  some  method  for  restraining  the 
building  of  unnecessary  roads.  Under  the  present  general  in 
corporation  law,  any  number  of  persons  not  less  than  five  may 
become  incorporated  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  and  oper 
ating  a  railroad.  Under  this  law7  more  than  nine  hundred 
franchises  for  the  construction  of  new  railroads  have  been  is 
sued.1  Although  many  of  the  roads  thus  chartered  have  not 
been  built,  a  need  exists  for  some  positive  means  of  control 
ling  the  unlimited  granting  of  railway  franchises  and  the  build 
ing  of  unnecessary  roads.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  much  great 
er  evil  has  arisen  from  this  latter  cause  in  the  past  than  is  to 
be  expected  in  the  future,  but  the  securing  of  franchises  for 
purely  speculative  purposes  is  as  pronounced  an  evil  at  the 
present  time  as  it  has  been  in  the  past.  Beneficial  results 
could  be  secured  by  a  law  requiring  a  proper  certificate  to  be 
obtained  from  the  railway  commission  before  articles  of  incor 
poration  are  granted  for  the  construction  of  any  new  railroad 
in  the  state. 

There  is  opportunity  for  increasing  the  usefulness  of  the 
commission  in  the  matter  of  securing  uniformity  of  railway 
accounts.  As  the  law  now  stands,  the  only  restriction  placed 
upon  the  keeping  of  their  accounts  in  any  way  which  the  roads 
see  fit  lies  in  the  fact  that  on  certain  particulars,  specified  in 
the  law  of  1871,  the  roads  are  required  to  make  a  report  to  the 
commission.  Uniformity  in  railway  accounting  is  eminently 
desirable,  and  if  the  method  of  accounting  is  to  be  prescribed, 
the  commission  should  be  delegated  with  the  power  of  prescrib 
ing  it.  Action  along  this  line  wrould.  however,  be  of  little  value 
until  the  initiative  is  taken  by  the  federal  government  in  giv 
ing  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  power  to  prescribe 
uniform  methods  of  accounting  for  interstate  roads.  Should 


R.  R.  £  W.  Com.     Report,  1895,  xix. 

[286] 


79 

this  action  be  taken  by  the  federal  government,  the  states  hav 
ing  railway  commissions  should  confer  upon  them  the  power 
to  prescribe  the  form  in  which  the  railroads  within  the  state 
shall  keep  their  accounts. 

In  general  the  legislation  which  has  been  adopted  by  Illi 
nois  since  1870  with  regard  to  the  railroads  has  promoted  a  har 
monious  development  of  the  transportation  industry  in  the 
state.  A  due  regard  has  been  paid  to  the  rights  of  the  people 
but  in  most  cases  in  protecting  public  interests,  the  legislature 
has  not  worked  injustice  to  the  roads.  During  the  period  of 
thirty  years  over  which  the  legislation  under  our  consideration 
has  extended,  the  legislature  of  the  state  has  many  times  been, 
forced  to  the  front  in  seeking  a  solution  of  the  railway  problems 
which  were  characteristic  of  the  development  of  the  roads  in 
the  West.  The  successful  dealing  with  these  problems  has  se 
cured  for  Illinois  a  condition  of  railway  development  and  effi 
ciency  which  justly  entitles  her  to  the  rank  of  the  first  railway 
state  in  the  Union. 


[287] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


ADAMS,  C.  F. 

Railroads,  Their  Origin  and  Problems.     New  York.     1886. 


The  Granger  Movement.  North  American  Review,  CXX:  ,'594-424,  Boston,  1875. 
ANDREAS,  A.  T. 

History  of  Chicago.     Chicago.     1886. 
CLARK,  F.  C. 

State  Railroads  Commissions  and  How  They  May  Be  Made  Effective.     Publica 
tions  of  the  American  Economic  Association.  VI  :  473-582.  Baltimore,  1891. 
DAVIDSON  &  STUVE. 

History  of  Illinois.     Springfield,  1884. 

Debates  of  the  (Illinois)  Constitutional  Convention  of  1870.     Springfield. 
DIXON,  F.  H. 

State  Railroad  Control,  with  a  History  of  its  Development  in  Iowa.     New  York, 

1896. 
HADLEY,  A.  T. 

Railroad  Transportation.     New  York,  1886. 
HENDRICK,  F. 

Railway  Control  by  Commissions.     New  York.     1900. 
Illinois  House  Journal.     Springfield. 
Illinois  Senate  Journal.     Springfield. 
Illinois  Supreme  Court  Reports.     Springfield. 
LANGSTROTH  &  STILZ. 

Railway  Cooperation.     Publications  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.     Series 

in  Political  Economy  and  Public  Law.     No.  15,  Philadelphia,  1899. 
Laws  of  Illinois.     Springfield. 

MclNTOSH,   A.  T. 

The  Regulation  of  Railroads  by  the  State  of  Illinois.     Manuscript  Thesis  in  the 

Library  of  Northwestern  University.     1900. 
MCLEAN,  S.  J. 

State  Regulation  of  Railways  in  the  United  States.  Economic  Journal,  X:349-369. 

London.     1900. 
MOSES,  JOHN. 

Illinois,  Historical  and  Statistical.     Chicago.     1895. 
NEWCOMB,  H.  T. 

Railway  Economics.     Philadelphia,  1898. 
PAINE,  A.  E. 

The  Granger   Movement  in   Illinois.     Manuscript  Thesis  in  the  Library  of  the 
University  of  Illinois.  1900.   [This  will  be  the  next  number  of  the  Studies.] 

[288] 


81 

PERRY,  E.  R. 

The  Regulation  of  Railroads  by  the  State  of  Illinois.     Manuscript  Thesis  in  the 
Library  of  Northwestern  University.     1900. 

POOR,  H.  V. 

Manual  of  the  Railroads  of  the  United  States.     New  York,  1868. 

The  Prairie  Farmer,  v.44.     Chicago,   1878. 

Proceedings  of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the  State  Railroad  Commissioners.     Wash 
ington,  1889— 

Reports  of  the  Railroad  and  Warehouse  Commission,  Illinois.     Springfield,  1871. — 

Reports  of  the  Statistician   of   the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.     Washington, 
1888.— 

Reports  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Illinois.     Springfield. 

Revised  Statutes  of  Illinois.     Springfield  and  Chicago. 

United  States  Statutes  at  Large.     Washington. 

United  States  Supreme  Court  Reports.     Washington. 


[289] 


Untoersitp  of  f  Utnois 


Vol  I  JULY,  1904  No.  7 


The  Coals  of  Illinois;    Their  Composition 
and    Analysis 


By 


S.  W.  PARR,  M,  S.. 

Professor  of  Applied  Chemistry  in  the  University  of  Illinois 


PRICE    25    CENTS 


THE  COALS  OF  ILLINOIS. 
THEIR  COMPOSITION  AND  ANALYSIS. 

There  are  two  sources  of  motion  on  the  earth,  chemical 
action  and  gravity.  They  are  the  initial  forms  of  power  and 
constitute  the  prime  factors  in  industrial  development.  Their 
availability  in  any  region  is  an  index  of  present  or  potential 
activity.  Of  gravity  it  may  almost  be  said  that  it  has  become 
a  commodity  by  reason  of  its  easy  transformation  into  electric 
energy;  but  its  range  is  limited.  Chemical  energy  in  its  cheap 
est  form  resides  in  the  coal  and  oil  deposits  of  the  world.  Their 
cost  of  transformation  is  the  great  problem  of  the  engineer. 
He  has  been  mainly  occupied  with  boilers  and  grates  and  stok 
ers,  but  recently  a  marked  tendency  is  evident  towards  a  more 
critical  study  of  the  fuel  itself.  The  investigation  presented 
herewith  of  the  composition  and  properties  of  coal  is  a  con 
tribution  in  that  direction. 

Geologically,  coal  is  a  mineral  derived  by  process  of  de 
composition  from  organic  material  consisting,  in  the  main,  of 
cellulose.  We  know  the  products  of  decomposition  of  this 
material  when  submerged  to  be  carbon  dioxide,  marsh-gas  and 
water;  hence  a  chemical  change  takes  place  somewhat  after 
the  following  equation: 

GCeHioO       7  C02  +  CH4  -f  15H20  +  C28H260 

Cellulose  Coal 

Now,  if  we  take  this  hypothetical  coal  molecule,  C28H260, 
and  examine  it  chemically,  we  shall  find  that  under  the  influ 
ence  of  heat  its  most  natural  decomposition  products  are  coke, 
marsh-gas  and  water,  indicated  in  an  equation  with  their  per 
centages  as  follows  : 

C28H260  C22        +         6CH4  -f  H20 

Coal  Coke  Marsh-gas  Water 

100  per  cent.  —  69. 84  per  cent,  -f  25.40  per  cent.  +  4.76  per  cent. 

[2QI] 


But  in  the  usual  method  of  analysis  a  separation  is  made 
between  the  coke,  or  non-volatile  part,  and  the  volatile  matter 
as  a  whole,  including  in  the  latter  both  the  marsh-gas  and 
water;  hence  we  have  a  procedure  represented  by  the  follow 
ing  equation: 

CwHaeO  C22          4-          (6CH24  +  ILO) 

Coal  Coke  Volatile  Matter 

100  per  cent.  -=  69.84  per  cent.  -f  30.16  per  cent. 

This  volatile  matter  burns,  being  mostly  marsh-gas,  the 
chief  constituent  of  house-gas;  the  water  is  small  in  amount 
and  seems  to  have  been  in  a  measure  lost  sight  of,  for  this  vola 
tile  material  came  to  have  the  name  "  volatile  combustible  " 
applied  to  it.  Moreover,  water  of  more  genuine  characteristics 
is  always  found  present.  It  is  hygroscopic  and  invisible,  to  be 
sure,  but  it  can  be  removed  by  drying,  as  the  other  water  of 
composition  can  not  be,  and  hence  the  analysis  showing  only 
the  one  kind,  the  hygroscopic,  has  been  made  to  satisfy  both 
the  purpose  of  the  engineer  and  the  conscience  of  the  chemist. 
The  engineer  therefore  receives  his  results  in  percentages  of 
constituents  labeled  as  follows  : 

Ash 

Moisture 
Volatile  Matter 
Fixed  Carbon  or  Coke 

He  calls  the  first  two  the  non-combustible,  and  the  last  two 
the  combustible,  material;  and  to  the  sum  of  the  latter,  as  the 
unit  of  the  fuel,  he  refers  the  evaporative  efficiency  of  his 
boiler,  and  also  his  calorific  values,  on  the  theory  that  he  ob 
tains  the  heat  units  per  pound  of  combustible  when  making 
the  calculation  to  the  material  as  "  ash  and  water  free." 

SEMI-BITUMINOUS  COAL. 

In  the  accompanying  diagram  (Fig.  1)  the  characteristics 
of  this  type  of  coal  are  more  concisely  shown  and  in  the  rela 
tive  proportions  of  the  constituents.  The  results,  moreover, 

[292] 


5 

are  not  hypothetical,  as  above  considered,  but  are  taken  from 
an  actual  sample  of  "  Pocahontas"  coal,1  which  belongs  to  the 
so-called  semi-bituminous  type,  and  constitutes  a  very  large 
part  of  the  coal  deposit  of  the  Appalachian  field. 

The  outer  zone  in  the  diagram  represents  the  constituents 
as  ordinarily  found  by  proximate  analysis,  and  in  tabular  form 
would  be  represented  thus  : 

Ash 3.49  per  cent. 

Moisture 93    "       " 

Volatile  Matter 18.70    "      " 

Fixed  Carbon.  76.88    "       " 


100.00    "       " 
Total  non-Combustible.      4.42    "       " 

Total  Combustible 95.58    "       " 

Hence   104.62   pounds    of    coal   are   required  to  make    100.00 
pounds  of  actual  fuel. 

In  the  next  to  the  outer  zone  of  the  figure  the  constituents 
are  the  same,  except  that  the  "  volatile  matter  "  is  subdivided 
into  that  part  which  in  our  hypothetical  coal  molecule  was 
referred  to  as  water  of  composition,  as  distinct  from  the 
"  moisture "  or  hygroscopic  water.  This  constituent  in  the 
actual  coal  amounts  to  4.21  per  cent.,  leaving  for  actual  com 
bustible  in  the  volatile  part  only  14.50  per  cent,  instead  of  18.7 
per  cent,  as  before  indicated.  Hence  it  appears  that  our  report 
of  analysis  as  above  given  should  be  modified  to  read  thus  : 

Ash 3.49  per  cent. 

Moisture 93    "       " 

j  Water  of  Composition 4.21    " 

T True  Volatile  Combustible..     14.50    "      " 
Fixed  Carbon.  76.88    "      " 


100.00 

Total  non-Combustible.....       8.63    " 
Total  Combustible  .  91.38    " 


Trans.  Am.  Soc.  M.E.,  XXIV.,  1211. 

[293] 


ANALYSIS  -  EASTERN 
COALS 


ANALYSIS  OTA  SEMI-BITUMINOUS  COAL 

(POCAHONTAS)  SHOWING   CONSTITUENTS 

IN   RELATIVE  PROPORTIONS 


FIGURE 

[294] 


In  this  case  109.43  pounds  of  coal  are  required  to  make  100.00 
pounds  of  actual  fuel. 

The  inner  zone  of  the  diagram  shows  a  still  further  sub 
division  of  the  true  volatile  combustible  into  carbon,  hydrogen 
and  sulphur;  but  of  this  subdivision  and  their  ratios  we  shall 
make  mention  later. 

The  type  of  coal  thus  far  considered  is  common  to  the 
Eastern  States  and  to  European  countries,  and  it  may  be  that 
analytical  processes,  at  least  the  so-called  "  proximate  analysis, " 
conveyed  an  element  of  untruth  of  not  sufficient  magnitude  to 
disturb  the  method  because  of  the  convenience  that  character 
ized  it. 

BITUMINOUS  COAL. 

Let  us  briefly  make  a  parallel  statement  concerning  the 
coals  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  We  find  on  working  back  from 
the  present  structure  to  the  original  cellulose  decomposition, 
that  it  has  proceeded  somewhat  differently,  thus  : 

6C6H1005  -  7CO-2  +  4CH4  +  13H20  +  C,5Hi803 

Cellulose  Coal 

The  decomposition  of  the  coal  in  analysis,  therefore,  would 
be  represented  thus  : 

C26H1802  =  C20  +  C6HM          +  3H20 

Coal  Coke  Pentane  Water 

100  per  cent.  =  65.58  per  cent.  +  19.67  per  cent,  -f  14.75 

To  carry  out  the  comparison,  a  second  diagram  has  been  pre 
pared,  and  again  this  has  not  been  made  up  from  the  hypothet 
ical  coal  molecule  just  presented,  but  from  the  average  of  results 
obtained  from  ten  typical  Illinois  coals. 

As  in  the  first  diagram,  the  outer  zone  represents  the  ordi 
nary  proximate  analysis  and  by  the  usual  method  would  be 
reported  thus  : 

[295] 


ANALYSIS -ILLINOIS 
COALS 


AVERAGE  or  TEN    ILLINOIS  COALS 

SHOWING  CONSTITUENTS  IN 

RELATIVE  PROPORTIONS. 


FIGURE  2. 
[296] 


9 


Ash 8.00  per  cent. 

Moisture 7.00    "       " 

Volatile  Matter 35.60    "       " 

Fixed  Carbon.  49.40    "      " 


100.00    "      " 

Total  non-Combustible.     15.00    "       " 
Total  Combustible  ....     84.00    " 

Here  we   need   119.00   pounds  of  coal  to  make  one   hundred 
pounds  of  fuel. 

The  next  zone  shows  the  relative  parts  when  a  division  is 
made  of  the  volatile  matter,  and  for  this  type  of  coal  the 
analytical  data  agree  somewhat  closely  with  our  hypothetical 
coal  molecule  given  above.  This  zone  shows  the  volatile  mat 
ter  to  consist  of  14.00  per  cent,  of  inert  matter,  or,  as  we  have 
been  calling  it,  "  Water  of  Composition  ",  and  21.6  per  cent,  of 
true  combustible  matter.  Hence,  instead  of  the  list  as  given 
above,  our  report  of  constituents  should  be  : 

Ash 8.00  per  cent. 

Moisture 7.00  "  " 

(  Water  of  Composition 14.00  "  " 

\  True  Volatile  Combustible. .  21.60  "  " 

Fixed  Carbon .  49.40    "       " 


100.00    " 

Total  non-Combustible 29.00    " 

Total  Combustible 71.00    "      " 

Hence  there  are  required  141.00  pounds  of  coal  to  make  100.00 
pounds  of  actual  fuel,  instead  of  119.00,  as  by  the  usual  method. 

LIGNITE  OR  BROWN  COAL. 

It  is  of  interest  here  to  present  a  third  diagram  showing 
the  same  facts  with  regard  to  brown  coals,  a  North  Dakota 
lignite  being  used  for  the  analysis. 

[297] 


ANALYSIS  OF  LIGMITIC 
COALS 


ANALYSIS  or  A  LIGMITIC  OR  BROWM 

COAL  SHOWING  CONSTITUENTS 

IM  RELATIVE  PROPORTIONS. 

FIGURE  3. 


[298] 


11 


By  reference  to  the  outer  circle,  which  represents  the  usual 
method  of  analysis,  we  have  results  as  follows  : 

Ash 2.71  per  cent. 

Moisture 14.12    " 

Volatile  Matter 41.91    "       " 

Fixed  Carbon.  41.26    "       " 


100.00    "       " 

Total  non-Combustible.     16.83    "       " 
Total  Combustible  ....     83.17    "       " 

Hence,  by  this  showing,  120.23  pounds   of    coal  would  be  re 
quired  to  make  100.00  pounds  of  combustible. 

However,  upon  further  analysis  of  the  volatile  matter,  we 
find  it  to  consist  of  21.63  per  cent,  of  water  of  composition 
and  of  only  20.28  per  cent,  of  actual  combustible.  Hence  our 
results  should  be  made  to  read  as  follows  : 

Ash 2.71  per  cent. 

Moisture 14.12    " 

(  Water  of  Composition  .....     21.63    "      " 

\  True  Volatile  Combustible. .     20.28    "      " 

Fixed  Carbon.  41.26    "       " 


100.00    "       " 

Total  non-Combustible 38.46    "       " 

Total  Actual  Combustible  . .  61.54  "  " 
Here  there  would  be  needed  162.49  pounds  of  coal  to  make 
100.00  pounds  of  actual  combustible.  These  ratios  in  the  three 
types  of  coal,  with  the  differences  in  the  results  of  the  custom 
ary  and  the  proposed  method  of  determining  actual  fuel,  may 
be  better  illustrated  in  a  table,  thus  : 

TABLE  I. 


No.  of  pounds  required  to  make  100  pounds 
of  "Combustible." 

Error  of  common 
method  per  100 
pounds  of  actual 
fuel. 

Kind  of  Coal. 

Common  Method. 

Proposed  Method. 

Pocahontas  
Illinois    

104.02 
119.00 
120.23 

109.43 
141.00 
162.49 

4.81 
22.00 
42.26 

Lignite 

[209] 


12 

It  is  evident  from  the  table  that  a  boiler  rated,  for  example, 
at  an  efficiency  of  10  pounds  of  steam  per  pound  of  coal  of  the 
Pocahontas  'type  would  have  difficulty  with  a  coal  wherein  22 
per  cent,  of  the  so-called  combustible  was  really  non-combusti 
ble  and  inert,  to  say  nothing  of  the  loss  due  to  heat  of  vapor 
ization  and  temperature  of  the  same  water  in  the  form  of 
escaping  flue  gases. 

WATER  OF  COMPOSITION  AND  VOLATILE  COMBUSTIBLE. 

We  come  now  to  the  methods  for  obtaining  the  factors 
above  indicated.  At  first  thought,  an  ultimate  analysis  of  all 
the  constituents  would  seem  to  be  the  only  means  for  arriving 
at  these  data.  But  such  analyses  are  almost  prohibitive  for 
technical  use,  because  of  the  time  and  manipulative  skill 
involved;  but  more  than  this  it  may  be  questioned  whether  an 
ultimate  analysis  alone  will  give  the  data  in  the  desired  form. 
Very  much  depends  upon  the  factor  for  "available  ",  that  is, 
combustible,  hydrogen.  With  this  factor  at  hand,  and  one  for 
total  carbon,  we  have  all  the  constituents  that  can  enter  into 
the  actual  combustible,  with  the  possible  addition  of  a  small 
correction  for  sulphur. 

In  the  data  so  far  presented  the  factor  for  the  disposable 
hydrogen  has  been  calculated  from  the  results  obtained  by 
both  ultimate  and  proximate  analysis,  wherein  the  available 
hydrogen  in  bituminous  coals  was  regarded  as  a  part  of  the 
volatile  hydrocarbon  having  the  composition  represented  by 
the  formula  C5H|2,  or,  in  semi-bituminous  coals,  by  CH4.  The 
formula  in  each  case  therefore,  for  calculating  the  hydrogen 

would  be  -       -  and  — -f  -  in  which  C  and  c  are  the  total  carbon 
5  d 

and  the   fixed  carbon  respectively.     Therefore  (C  -c)  + — g— 

would  represent  the  true  volatile  combustible,  and  this  value 
subtracted  from  the  total  volatile  matter  equals  the  water  of 
composition. 

Before  passing  to  the  consideration  of  methods  for  obtain 
ing  the  total  and  fixed  carbon,  a  word  further  concerning  the 

[300] 


13 

deriving  of  hydrogen  from  these  constituents  is  necessary.  That 
this  method  is  applicable  to  certain  classes  of  coals  is  evident 
from  Table  II. 

Comparison  is  made  between  the  usual  method  for  arriving 

at  the  available  hydrogen  by  means  of  the  expression  (H — ~-), 

Q c 

and  the  proposed  ratio  ( — =—  ).     The  first  results  are  derived 

o 

from  the  averages  of  10  Illinois  coals.  The  others  are  calcu 
lated  from  averages  obtained  by  Lord  and  Haas.1 

TABLE  II. 


Coals. 

Percentage  of 
Available 
Hydrogen 

Difference 
in 
Percent 
age. 

H-°      C~c 

11       8               5 

Average  of  ten  Illinois  coals  ... 

3.76 
3.94 
4.15 
4.10 
3  34 

3.60 
4.20 
4.28 
4.10 
3.67 
4.39 
3.35 
3.62 

—  .16 
+  .26 
+  .13 
.00 
+  .33 
+  .12 
-.50 
—  .35 

Upper  Freeport,  Ohio  and  Penn  .  .  . 
Pittshurg,  Penn  .    . 

Darlington,  Penn. 

Hocking  Vallev,  Ohio 

Thacker,  W.  Va... 

4.27 

3.85 
3.97 

Pocahontas,  W.  Ya.  (Sample  I)2. 
(  Sample  2)2  ... 

From  the  table,  it  would  appear  that  the  possible  error 
from  thus  calculating  the  available  hydrogen  would  be  less 
than  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  true  value,  and  its  effect 
as  a  variable,  therefore,  in  calculating  the  true  volatile  com 
bustible  would  fall  within  that  limit. 

It  may  not  be  concluded,  however,  that  so  uniform  a  ratio 
is  applicable  to  widely  varying  types  of  coal.  Indeed,  there  is 
good  evidence,  so  far  as  it  has  been  tested  in  connection  with 
Illinois  coals  at  least,  that  a  gradation  exists;  thus  if  we  let 
the  volatile  carbon  be  represented  by  total  carbon  minus  fixed 
carbon,  or  C  -  -  c;  then 

1  Trans.  Am.  Inst.  Min.  Eng.  XXVII.,  266-7. 


[30iJ 


14 


Where  C  —  c  =  10  per  cent,  the  available  hydrogen  =  J 


-20 
-25 


=  * 


A  diagram  therefore  has  been  arranged  as  follows  to  test  the 
correctness  of  the  above  ratios.  Fifty  Illinois  coals  have  been 
located  with  the  volatile  carbon  for  abscissa  and  that  amount 
of  hydrogen  for  ordinate  which  would  be  required  to  produce 
the  heat  values  indicated  by  the  calorimeter. 


10  IS  JZO 

Volatile  Carbon,  C  —  c 

FIGURE  4. 

TOTAL  CARBON. 
It  will  be  noted  that  the  expression 


25 


C  — c 


requires  the 


value  for  C,  that  is,  the  total  carbon  content  of  the  coal.  If 
this  must  be  obtained  by  the  usual  combustion  method  we  have 
made  but  little  progress  by  the  mere  development  of  the  above 
ratio.  It  is  proposed  to  obtain  the  factor  for  the  total  carbon 
by  means  of  the  apparatus  shown  in  Figure  5. 

Combustion  of  the  coal  is  effected  in  a  closed  bomb  as  in 
the  calorimetric  process  described  further  on,  by  use  of  sodium 

[302] 


15 

peroxide,  Na202,  the  product  of  the  combustion  being  sodium 
carbonate,  Na2CCk  The  solution  of  this  material  is  placed  in 
the  receptacle  A,  while  acid  is  in  B  and  C.  The  flask  C  con 
tains  about  25cc.  of  sulphuric  acid,  and  a  carefully  measured 
volume  of  air  taken  at  common  pressure  and  temperature.  At 


APPARATUS  FOR  "TOTAL  CARBON  DETERMINATION. 
FIGURE  5. 

the  end,  after  admitting  all  the  carbonate  solution  and  meas 
uring  the  volume  of  gas  evolved,  the  flask  C  is  completely 
filled  with  the  wash  water  from  A  and  the  total  volume  meas 
ured  over  in  the  jacketed  pipette  PP.  By  subtracting  the 
initial  volume  in  the  flask  C,  the  exact  volume  of  carbon  diox- 

[303! 


16 

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[304] 


17 

ide  from  the  sodium  carbonate  is  obtained.  The  pressure  and 
temperature  readings  are  taken  and  from  the  subjoined  table 
the  exact  weight  of  the  carbon  is  derived.  Great  care  has  been 
exercised  in  the  preparation  of  the  table.  The  computations 
were  made  by  three  individuals,  with  comparison  of  results  to 
eliminate  all  possibility  of  errors  in  the  final  readings. 

FIXED  CARBON. 

It  will  be  evident  from  what  has  preceded  that  more  than 
usual  importance  attaches  to  the  factor  for  fixed  carbon.  A 
special  study  has  been  made  of  methods  for  obtaining  this 
factor,  first  because  the  method  recommended  by  the  commit 
tee  of  the  American  Chemical  Society  on  coal  analysis1  is  not 
altogether  satisfactory;  and,  second,  because  with  western 
coals  high  in  sulphur  the  use  of  platinum  for  this  determina 
tion  is  to  be  avoided  if  possible. 

The  report  of  the  committee  prescribes  heating  in  a  plati 
num  crucible  over  a  Bunsen  flame  20  cm.  high  when  burning 
free.  Our  objections  to  the  prescribed  method  may  be  stated 
as  follows  : 

The  heat  capacity  of  a  Bunsen  burner  is  not  measured 
alone  by  the  height  of  the  flame.  For  example,  a  large  sized 
adjustable  burner  with  a  tube  of  10  mm.  caliber  will  give  more 
heat  than  a  small  burner  with  a  tube  of  9  mm,  caliber,  and 
burning  at  the  regulation  height.  The  results  also  are  more 
variable  than  they  should  be.  This  is  more  noticeable  in  west 
ern  than  in  eastern  coals,  but  in  any  case  it  is  to  be  expected 
that  the  platinum  crucible  arranged  as  prescribed  is  especially 
sensitive  to  external  influences,  and  especially  to  differences  in 
the  heat  capacity  of  the  flame.  In  the  table  following,  an  aver 
age  sample  of  coal  designated  Sandoval,  Illinois,  was  used.  It 
cokes  freely,  and  has  ash  11.94  per  cent,  and  moisture  5.51  per 
cent,  Comparison  of  results  is  made  with  use  of  a  large  and 
small  sized  Bunsen  burner  as  aboye  described,  and  also  with 

1  J.  Am.  Chem.  Soc.  XXL,  1122. 

[305J 


18 

the  old  combination  of  burner  and  blast,  and  with  use  of  a 
porcelain  crucible  in  a  small  furnace  of  special  construction  to 
be  described  later. 

TABLE  IV. 
DETERMINATION  OF  VOLATILE  MATTER,  SANDOVAL,  ILLINOIS,  COAL. 


Large  Bunsen  burner 

Flame  20  cm.  high 

Plat,  crucible,  Time  7  min , 
Small  Bunsen  burner . . 


Flame  20  cm.  high V 

ible,  Time  7  min J 


Plat.  crucible 
Bunsen  flame  3  J  min 
Blast  flame  3£  min 
Plat,  crucible 
Bunsen  flame  3    min 


Blast  flame  3£  min 

Porcelain  crucible  in  special 

furnace  J 


1 


Highest  ...    37.21  per  cent. 

Lowest 35.71 

Variation   1.50 

Average  of  eight  . . .  36.52  per  cent. 

Highest 36.73  per  cent. 

Lowest 35.69 

Variation   1.04 

Average  of  eight ....   36. 13  per  cent. 


Highest 
Lowest  . 


37.78  per  cent. 
36.53 


Variation   1.25 

Average  of  fourteen .  37.13  per  cent. 

Highest 37.35  per  cent. 

Lowest 36.69 

Variation 66 

Average  of  nine 37.10  per  cent. 


From  this  table  it  appears  feasible  to  replace  the  expensive 
platinum  crucible  with  one  of  porcelain.  The  serious  deterior 
ation  of  platinum  under  the  combined  effect  of  red  hot  carbon 
and  sulphur  makes  this  end  a  very  desirable  one,  even  if  there 
were  no  advantage  in  the  results.  On  this  latter  point  there 
is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  porcelain  crucible.  The  in 
itial  heating  up  is  somewhat  more  gradual.  A  bright  red  is 
very  easily  reached  and  evenly  maintained,  and  especially  is  it 
true  that  the  full  effect  of  the  heat  is  exerted  on  all  sides,  com 
pletely  enveloping  the  crucible. 

The  form  of  apparatus  is  shown  in  the  accompanying 
figure. 

First,  as  to  the  lamp  :  'This  simple  form  of  blast  lamp  has 
been  in  use  in  this  laboratory  for  the  past  seven  years,  and  has 


[306] 


19 

proved  itself  of  such  general  utility  as  to  merit  a  brief  descrip 
tion. 

It  consists  essentially  of  a  Bunsen  burner  with  the  blast 
entering  at  the  usual  inlet  for  the  gas,  and  the  gas  entering 
through  a  side  tube  attached  where  the  air  is  ordinarily  ad 
mitted.  The  air  is  discharged  through  a  tip  with  circular  open 
ing  1J  mm.  in  diameter,  and  is  so  adjusted  as  to  come  about 


COKING     FURNACE 
FIGURE  6. 

even  with  the  lower  side  of  the  gas  inlet  tube.  A  wire  gauze 
is  inserted  in  the  tube  about  f  of  the  way  towards  the  top.  The 
lamp  is  especially  adapted  for  use  with  blast  of  constant  press 
ure.  By  adjustment  of  the  air  it  may  be  made  to  burn  with  a 
common  Bunsen  flame.  In  connection  with  the  furnace  it  is 
allowed  to  burn  for  the  first  3^  minutes  as  a  strong  Bunsen 
flame  of  12  inches  when  burning  free.  During  the  second 
period  of  3^  minutes  it  burns  as  a  blast  lamp.  The  combus- 

[307] 


tion,  however,  leaves  the  tip  of  the  lamp  and  takes  place  en 
tirely  within  the  chamber  underneath  the  crucible.  In  this 
way  an  excessive  amount  of  fuel  may  be  forced  into  a  small 
space  by  the  jet  action  of  the  blast.  The  combustion  taking 
place  in  this  chamber  and  the  hot  gases  being  turned  downward 
to  escape  through  the  annular  space  at  the  side,  a  very  intense 
heat  is  quickly  attained. 

A  cross  section  is  shown  through  the  furnace  in  Fig.  7. 


FURNACE: 


FIGURE  7. 

The  base  B  rests  on  a  cast  plate  with  an  opening  1£  inches 
in  diameter.  The  crucible  rests  on  a  triangular  support  which 
permits  of  the  free  passage  of  the  gases,  part  of  which  may 
escape  through  a  small  opening  in  the  top  of  C,  but  mostly 
they  are  required  to  travel  downward  between  the  two  walls 
and  escape  at  the  lower  edge  of  R. 

A  common  glazed  crucible  of  Eoyal  Berlin  Porcelain  No. 
00  is  used.  Crucibles  as  true  as  possible  are  selected,  with  well 
fitting  covers,  and  these  are  ground  with  emery  powder  until 

[308] 


21 

the  lid  touches  at  all  points.  Crucibles  may  be  used  many 
times,  but  if  warping  occurs  the  covers  may  require  regrind- 
ing, — not  a  difficult  matter  and  easily  accomplished  by  hand  in 
five  or  ten  minutes. 

SULPHUR. 

We  come  now  to  sulphur,  a  constituent  having  more  im 
portance  than  is  usually  ascribed  to  it;  this  is  especially  true 
of  western  coals,  in  which  this  element  varies  from  1  per  cent, 
to  5  per  cent.  One  of  its  characteristics,  and  by  no  means 
the  least,  is  the  part  it  plays  as  a  disturbing  element  in 
nearly  all  the  determinations  in  coal  analysis.  The  Eschka 
method  is  satisfactory,  but  heat  other  than  from  a  gas  flame 
must  be  used.  There  is  still  some  question  as  to  the  like 
lihood  of  sulphur  being  left  in  the  residue,  and  also  as  to 
the  necessity  of  dehydrating  the  silica.  The  use  of  sodium 
peroxide  as  an  oxidizing  agent  has  received  considerable  atten 
tion,  but  the  violence  of  the  reaction  has  brought  disfavor  upon 
the  method.  However,  by  means  of  a  closed  bomb,  as  in  the 
Parr  calorimeter,  there  has  been  fully  demonstrated  the  prac 
ticability  of  using  sodium  peroxide  for  this  purpose.  Indeed, 
over  two  years  ago,  Mr.  Milton  Hersey  of  Montreal,  Canada,  in 
a  communication  to  the  author  reported  the  very  satisfactory 
use  of  the  residues  from  the  calorimetric  process  for  gravimet- 
rically  determining  the  sulphur.  Later  articles  by  Sundstrom1 
and  by  von  Konek2  have  advocated  the  same  method. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  now  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  this 
phase  of  the  matter,  but  simply  to  emphasize  the  fact  of  the 
completeness  of  the  oxidation,  which  has  been  verified  very 
many  times  by  the  writer. 

Coupling  the  sodium  peroxide  method  of  arriving  at  a 
combustion  with  the  photometric  method  proposed  by  Mr. 
Hinds,3  there  seem  to  be  possibilities  well  worth  investigating. 

1  Jour.  Am.  Chem.  Soc.  XXV.,  184. 

2  Zeit.  flir  Ang.  Chem.  1903,  p.  517. 

3  Jour.  Am.  Chem.  Soc.  XXIII.,  269. 

[30Q] 


22 

The  work  with  the  photometer,  however,  either  as  outlined  by 
Mr.  Hinds,  or  as  elaborated  by  Mr.  Jackson,1  was  not  found 
satisfactory.  A  careful  study  was  made  of  the  variable  ele 
ments  that  entered  into  the  proposition.  The  method  prescribed 
a  candle  of  standard  power,  maintained  at  a  definite  distance 
from  the  bottom  of  the  graduated  tube  in  which  was  read  the 
depth  of  liquid  through  which  the  outline  of  the  candle  flame 
could  be  seen.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  strength  of  the 
light  had  little  to  do  with  the  matter.  A  stronger  light  would 
illuminate  the  liquid  to  a  corresponding  degree  and  cause  the 
outline  of  the  candle  flame  to  disappear  at  about  the  same 
depth  as  a  lesser  light  with  a  less  illumination  of  the  liquid. 
As  between  a  common  candle  and  a  forty  candle  power 
acetylene  light  there  was  no  marked  difference.  Indeed,  the 
greatest  difference  was  noted  when  the  diffused  light  was  cut 
out  by  diaphragms,  in  which  case  the  light  could  be  seen 
through  a  greater  depth.  An  extreme  illustration  of  this  fact 
was  afforded  by  completely  blackening  an  incandescent  light 
bulb  and  then  cleaning  a  small  spot  to  show  a  short  length  of 
the  glowing  filament.  This  bit  of  filament,  which  afforded  no 
illumination  to  the  liquid,  could  be  seen  through  a  very  much 
greater  depth  than  was  the  case  with  an  ordinary  candle,  though 
its  power  was  far  below  the  standard.  Other  disturbing  conditions 
related  to  the  method  of  precipitation,  whether  hot  or  cold, 
whether  the  barium  salt  was  added  in  the  solid  or  the  liquid 
state,  whether  readings  were  made  at  once,  or  on  standing,  or 
whether  precipitations  made  in  the  cold  were  subsequently 
heated  or  not.  The  control  of  the  conditions  regarding  the 
lighfc  has  been  accomplished  with  a  greatly  modified  apparatus 
in  the  following  manner,  as  shown  in  Fig.  8. 

The  tube  graduated  in  millimeters  is  placed  in  a  common 
flask  having  a  little  clear  water  in  the  bottom.  The  flask  is 
placed  on  a  square  of  glass  resting  on  a  carbon  plate  about  f  of 
an  inch  thick  and  having  a  J  inch  hole  in  the  center.  The 

i  Jour.  Am  Chem.  Soc.  XXIII.,  799. 


23 

plate  is  adjusted  about  JO  inches  above  the  flame  of  a  common 
candle.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  reading  tube  has  a  round 
bottom.  This  is  carefully  blown,  of  clear  glass  without  flaw, 
and  ground  on  the  outer  surface;  the  whole  when  immersed 
playing  the  part  of  a  lens.  By  this  arrangement,  together  with 
the  diaphragm  effect  of  the  hole  in  the  carbon  plate,  a  pencil 
of  light  is  secured  with  the  minimum  amount  of  illumination 


PHOTOMETER  FOR  SULPHUR  DETERMINATIONS. 
FIGURE  8. 

being  imparted  to  the  liquid.  Moreover,  instead  of  the  vary 
ing  and  indefinite  outline  of  a  candle  flame  there  appears  a 
steady  compact  point  of  light.  The  end  reading  is  thereby 
rendered  sharp  and  definite.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
precipitations  made  with  the  barium  salt  in  solution,  or  with 
the  sulphate  solution  hot,  transmit  the  rays  from  the  candle  as 
white  light,  while  in  the  case  of  precipitations  made  with  the 
crystals  of  the  salt,  the  red  rays  only  are  transmitted,  the  illu- 

[311] 


24 

urination  of  the  liquid  is  in  this  way  still  further  reduced,  and 
the  sharpness  of  the  end  reading  is  thereby  promoted.  To 
secure  concordant  results,  detiniteness  of  precipitation  must  be 
obtained.  This  is  accomplished  by  adding  the  barium  salt  to 
the  100  cc.  of  solution  at  room  temperature,  and  after  dissolving 
completely,  heat  on  the  water  bath  to  about  70°.  Let  stand 
for  half  an  hour  and  bring  to  the  room  temperature,  when  it  is 
ready  to  transfer  to  the  photometric  tube  for  reading.  With 
this  device  it  has  been  necessary  to  work  out  a  new  table.  (Ta 
ble  VI).  The  conditions  are  purely  empirical,  but  not  arbitrary 
within  reasonable  limits,  except  as  to  the  size  of  the  hole  through 
the  plate  and  the  method  of  precipitation.  The  table  has  been 
developed  directly  from  a  standard  solution  of  potassium  sulphate 
having  5.4386  grams  dissolved  in  a  litre,  thus  containing  0.0001 
grams  of  sulphur  by  wreight  per  cubic  centimeter  of  solution. 
Results  from  use  of  this  method  as  above  outlined,  in  com 
parison  with  those  obtained  under  standard  conditions,  are 
shown  in  Table  V. 

TABLE  v. 

SHOAVING  PERCENTAGES  OF  SULPHUR. 


Illinois  Coal. 

Washings  from  Mahler 
Bomb. 
(Per  cent.  ) 

Residues  from  Parr 
Calorimeter  in  Photo 
meter. 
(Percent.) 

1.     Odin,  pea  

2  30 

2  17 

2.     St.  John's,  lump  

1  55 

1  65 

3.     Pana,  slack  

4  03 

4  04 

4.     Danville,  lump  

2  16 

2  31 

5.     Ridgely,  pea  

4  00 

4  01 

6.     Bloomington,  lump  

2.57 

2  68 

7.     Spring  Valley,  Avashed  

3.04 

3.20 

8.     Elmwood  

1.53 

1.61 

With  this  form  of  apparatus,  the  facility  with  which  the 
sulphur  determinations  may  be  made  has  enabled  us  to  under 
take  an  additional  factor  in  the  case  of  each  sample,  viz.,  the 
estimation  of  the  amount  of  sulphur  remaining  in  the  coke 
after  the  volatile  matter  has  been  driven  off.  The  coke  is  pul- 


[312] 


25 

TABLE  VI. 


PHOTOMETRIC    TABLE  FOR   5ULPHUR 

WEIGHT  OF  SULPHUR   IM    GRAMS 
PER    MILLIMETER    DEPTH 

M.M. 

SULPHUR 

IM     GRAMS 

M.M. 

•SULPHUR. 
irs  GRAMS 

M.M. 

SULPHUR 

IM    GRAMS 

M.M. 

SULPHUR 

IN    GRAMS 

200 

O.OOI3& 

l_5_[ 

0.00161 

117 

O.  O02.04- 

S3 

O.OO2.70 

195 

O.OOI40 

I5~0 

O.OOI62 

116 

O.OO2O6 

S2 

O.OO  273 

190 

0.00142 

149 

0.0  0  163 

//S 

O.OO2.08 

e>i 

0.00277 

153 

0.0014-5 

148 

O.OOI64- 

114- 

O.OO2IO 

80 

O.OO28O 

183 

0.00147 

14-7 

0.  OOI6S 

113 

O.OO2I2. 

79 

0.00284 

/do 

O.OO/  50 

14-6 

O.  OO  166 

//2 

O.O02-I4 

78 

O.OO  288 

/79 

O.OO/  5O 

/4-5 

0.00167 

III 

O.O02.I6 

77 

O.OO  292 

/78 

O.OOI5/ 

/4-4 

C.OO/68 

no 

0.002/8 

76 

0.00296 

/77 

0.00151 

/4-3 

0.00/69 

/09 

0.00220 

75 

0.00300 

176 

0.00  IS/ 

14-2. 

0.0011  r( 

/OS 

0.00222 

74- 

O.OO302 

J73T 

O.OO  151 

/4-f 

0.00172 

107 

0.00224- 

73 

O.OO304- 

/74- 

0.00152 

/4-0 

0.00174- 

W6 

0.00226 

72 

O.OO  3  07 

/73 

O.OO  152 

139 

O.OOI7S 

105 

O.OO228 

71 

0.003IO 

/72. 

O.OO  152 

J38 

O  .00176 

104- 

O.OO230 

70 

0.003/3 

f7l 

O.OO/  52 

/37 

0.  OO/77 

/03 

0.0023  1 

63 

0.00317 

170 

0.00/53 

136 

O.OOJ79 

/02 

0.00233 

68 

O.OO  3  20 

/69 

O.OO  153 

/JJ 

O.OO/&0 

/O/ 

O.OO234- 

67 

0.00323 

/68 

0.00  /  S3 

/34- 

0.001  &l 

/OO 

0.0023& 

66 

O.OO  3  27 

/67 

0.  0  OIS4- 

/33 

0.00182 

99 

0.002.38 

65 

O.  OO330 

/6~6 

O.  OO/S4 

J32. 

0.00184- 

98 

0.00239 

64 

0.00335 

/65 

O.OOIS4- 

/3I 

O.OOI&S 

97 

O.OO  2.4-0 

63 

O.OO  3  4-0 

/64 

0.00155 

130 

O.OOIS7 

96 

0.0024-1 

62 

0.0034-5 

/63 

0.00/SS 

/29 

0.00188 

95 

0.0024-3 

6/ 

O.OO35O 

/62 

O.OOISS 

128 

0.0  0  183 

34- 

0.0024-4- 

60 

0.00355 

/6I 

O.OOIS6 

/27 

O.OOI9O 

93 

0.0024-6 

53 

O.O0360 

/6O 

O.OOIS6 

126 

O.OOI9/ 

92 

0.002.4-8 

58 

O.OO  367 

/59 

O.OO  IS6 

/2f 

O.OOI93 

91 

O.OO  2.SO 

S7 

O.OO373 

/S8 

0.00157 

12.4- 

0  .OO  I95~ 

90 

O.OO2.52 

56 

O.O038O 

/57 

O.OOI57 

J23 

O.  OOI96 

89 

O.OO2L5S 

S5 

O.OO  38  6 

/^6 

0.0  01  S3 

122 

0.00/98 

88 

O.OOZS7 

&4 

O.OO  3  93 

/S5 

O.OOI5& 

/2I 

O.  O  OI99 

87 

O.O02.6O 

53 

o.  004-00 

(54 

O.OOI59 

120 

O.002OO 

86 

O.OO262 

52. 

O.OO4-O7 

/S3 

O.OOI5~°> 

1/9 

O.O02.O/ 

85 

O.O02.6S 

51 

O.OO4-I3 

/S2 

O.OO/6O 

1/8 

0.002.03 

84- 

0.002.67 

SO 

O.OO4-2O 

[313] 


26 

verized  and  burned  with  sodium  peroxide  in  the  calorimeter 
bomb  as  usual,  and  the  sulphur  determined  in  the  residue  by 
means  of  the  photometer.  Having  determined  the  total 
sulphur  in  the  coal,  the  difference  between  these  two  factors 
represents  the  volatile  sulphur.  In  the  analytical  tables  at  the 
end  these  divisions  are  observed  thioughout. 

CALORIFIC  VALUES. 

1st.  By  calculation  :  Many  attempts  have  been  made  to 
develop  a  reliable  formula  for  calculating  heat  values  from 
analytical  data.  The  formula  of  Dulong  is  the  most  reliable 
and  is  recommended  by  the  committee  of  the  American  Chemical 

Society  in  the  following  form,8080C  +  34460  (H  -  ^)  +  2250S.1 

o 

The  variations  between  the  observed  calorific  values  and  the 
calculated  values  as  shown  in  Mahler's  tables2  range  from  +  3 
per  cent,  to  -  3  per  cent.,  though  the  averages  of  numerous 
results  are  much  closer. 

The  variations  in  the  work  of  Lord  and  Haas  above  re 
ferred  to  are  not  so  great,  ranging  from  -\-  2  per  cent,  to  --  1.8 
per  cent.  Kent3  has  used  the  factors  3  and  5  times  the  avail 
able  hydrogen  derived  from  ultimate  analysis  to  indicate  (when 
subtracted  from  the  total  carbon)  the  amount  of  fixed  carbon, 
and  to  the  various  percentages  of  fixed  carbon  he  has  assigned 
certain  calorific  values.  His  results  while  interesting  seem  to 
show  greater  conformity  in  the  case  of  eastern  than  of  western 
coals. 

Possibly  quite  as  good  as  any  method  of  calculation  would 
be  the  one  already  partially  suggested  in  the  discussion  con 
cerning  the  derivation  of  the  factor  for  true  volatile  com- 


1  Jour.  Am.  Chem.  Soc.  XXI.,  1130. 

2  Contributional  'Etude  des  combustibles.     Mahler,  1892. 

3  Trans.  Am.  Inst.  Min.  Eng.,  XXVII.,  948. 

[314] 


27 

bustible  or  water  of  composition  (p.  13).     Stated  as  a  formula 

it  would  be  8080C  +  34500  (^-C)  +  2250S  in  which  C  is  the 

o 

total  carbon,  c  the  fixed  carbon,  and  S  the  sulphur,  or  still 
more  accurately,  8080C  +  34500  (H)  -f  2250S,  wherein  H  is  the 
available  hydrogen  as  indicated  by  the  curve  in  Figure  4,  the 
point  being  located  by  the  percentage  constituent  of  volatile 
carbon  as  shown  by  C — c.  Calculated  in  this  manner  the  50 
Illinois  coals  there  listed  would  show  extreme  variations  from 
the  calorimeter  values  of  about  +1.5  per  cent,  to  -  -1.5  per 
cent.  In  Table  VII.  the  calculated  results  thus  derived  are 
compared  with  observed  values  by  means  of  the  calorimeter. 

Concerning  calculations  in  general,  however,  it  is  well  to 
quote  Mahler1,  who  says  :  "We  cannot  give  a  general  formula 
depending  strictly  on  the  chemical  composition  which  will  give 
the  calorific  power  of  substances  so  complex  and  varied";  or 
Poole,  who  says:2  "If  possible,  by  all  means,  have  a  calorimetric 
test.  If  not  possible,  use  the  best  analysis  available." 

2nd.  By  observation:  The  calorimeter  devised  by  the 
writer  has  met  with  very  general  favor  and  is  now  widely  used 
both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  It  is  too  well  known  to  call 
for  detailed  description  here.  However,  a  few  modifications 
and  improvements  have  been  made  and  since  it  has  been  used 
in  the  accompanying  results  and  also  in  comparison  with  quite 
a  list  of  determinations  with  the  Mahler- Atwater  apparatus,  a 
brief  reference  is  here  given. 

Figure  9  shows  the  relative  positions  of  parts.  The  can  A. A. 
for  the  water  has  a  capacity  of  2  litres.  The  insulating  vessels 
B.B.  and  c.c.  are  of  indurated  liber.  The  charge  of  coal  and 
chemical  are  put  in  the  cartridge  D.  Upon  ignition,  the  heat 
generated  is  imparted  to  the  water  and  the  rise  in  temperature 
is  indicated  on  the  finely  graduated  thermometer  T.  The  car 
tridge  or  bomb  rests  on  the  pivot  F  and  is  made  to  revolve, 
thus  by  aid  of  the  small  turbine  wings  attached  effecting  a  com- 

1  As  quoted  by  Poole,  The  Calorific  Power  of  Fuels,  p.  10.     2  Ibid. 

[315] 


28 


plete  circulation  of  the  water  and  equalization  of  temperature. 
The  reaction  accompanying  the  combustion  may  be  repre 
sented  by  the  equation: 

56Na202      +    C25H1803  =  25  Na2C03     +    18  NaOH    +    22  Na20 

Sod.  perox.  Coal  Sod.  carb.  Sod.  hydrate  Sod.  oxide 

With  certain  substances  such  as  coke,  anthracites,  petrole 
ums,  etc.,  a  more  strongly  or   vigorously  oxidizing  medium  is 


FIGURE  9. 

needed  than  exists  in  the  peroxide  alone.  This  may  be  secured 
by  various  additions.  The  most  effective  are  :— a  mixture  of 
potassium  chlorate  and  nitrate  in  the  proportion  of  1  to  2  and 
this  mixture  used  in  the  ratio  of  1  to  10  of  the  sodium  peroxide; 
another  effective  mixture  is  an  addition  of  potassium  persul 
phate  in  the  ratio  of  1  to  10  of  the  sodium  peroxide.  Other 

[3.6] 


29 


substances  facilitate  the  oxidation,  notably  ammonium  salts 
and  certain  organic  substances,  as  tartaric  or  oxalic  acid,  ben- 
zoic  acid,  etc.  In  the  work  on  Illinois  coals,  while  ordinarily 
no  extra  chemical  would  be  necessary,  still  in  certain  cases 
such  as  extra  slaty  coals  and  coals  with  excessive  volatile 
matter,  and  also  to  guard  against  variations  in 
the  quality  of  the  sodium  peroxide,  a  mixture 
as  first  described  above,  of  chlorate  and  ni 
trate,  has  uniformly  been  used  throughout 
these  tests. 

One  peculiarity  in  the  behavior  of  the  com 
bustion  has  been  improved  by  the  above  mix 
tures.  This  behavior  is  probably  due  to  the 
fact  that  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the 
particles  of  coal  in  immediate  contact  with 
the  metal,  which  is  kept  cold  by  exterior  con 
tact  with  the  water,  to  escape  action  of  the 
chemical.  A  further  improvement  in  this 
particular  is  effected  by  a  modification  of  the 
bomb  as  illustrated  in  the  accompanying  fig 
ure  (Figure  10).  The  air  space  about  the  low 
er  part  of  the  bomb  prevents  direct  contact 
with  the  water.  However,  upon  ignition  this 
enclosed  air  expands  and  part  of  it  is  driven 
out  through  the  holes  below.  Later  as  cooling 
and  contraction  occur  the  water  is  drawn  into 
the  air  space  and  rapid  cooling  is  effected  but 
the  period  of  high  temperature  for  the  inter 
ior  reaction  has  been  prolonged  from  a  few- 
seconds  to  a  half  minute  or  more.  Other  advantages  are  se 
cured,  notably  the  avoidance  of  screw  threads  on  the  interior 
or  other  opportunity  for  material  to  lodge  and  cause  sticking 
or  difficult  removal  of  the  ends. 

In  Table  7  are  given  results  with  this  apparatus  in 
comparison  with  the  readings  obtained  by  use  of  a  Mahler- At- 
water  apparatus.  In  the  third  column  as  already  indicated 

[317] 


CALORfMETER   BOMB 

FIGURE  10. 


30 


TABLE  VII. 

COMPARISON  OF  CALORIFIC  FACTORS. 


No. 


A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 
G 
H 
I 
J 
12 
13 
14 
15 
24 
37 
38 
45 
60 
64 
65 
75 
126 
131 
134 
135 
136 
137 
140 
141 


Illinois  Coal. 


Mahler— 
Atwater  Bomb 
Calorimeter. 


Parr— 

Per-oxide 
Calorimeter. 


Calculation — 
8080  C  -4-  34500 
"H." 


Bloomington,  lump 6566 

Carterville,  washed 7174 

Danville,  lump 6797 

Elmwood,  lump 7050 

Moweaqua,  lump 6152 

Odin,  pea 6227 

Pana,  slack 5383 

Eidgeley,  pea 5922 

St.  Johns,  lump 6917 

Spring  Valley,  washed 6150 

Bloomington,  2nd  V.,  slack  . .  .  5510 

"      "lump....  6447 

3rd  V.,  slack....  6327 

11  "  lump 7140 

Buxton,  lump 6534 

Centralia,  slack 5911 

Centralia,  nut 6425 

Danville,  slack 6616 

Eldorado,  slack 5743 

Fairbury,  slack 5782 

lump 6804 

Harrisburg,  lump 7370 

Sandoval,  lump 6636 

Springfield,  slack 6653 

Streator,  2nd  V.,  slack 6343 

"  "  lump 6962 

7th  V.,  slack 6745 

"  "  lump 7257 

Trenton,  nut 5445 

slack  .  5808 


6530 

7185 
6762 
6990 
6135 
6257 
5387 
5964 
6911 
6109 
5637 
6511 
6326 
7106 
6520 
6020 
6476 
6672 
5777 
5868 
6747 
7379 
6677 
6635 
6395 
6983 
6775 
7256 
5500 
5947 


6687 
7027 
6804 
7092 
6256 
6333 
5745 
6193 
6769 
6346 
5742 
6571 
6316 
7119 
6540 
5879 
6440 
6610 
5854 
5893 
6773 
7276 
6500 
6589 
6371 
6948 
6717 
7119 
5673 
6008 


under  "Calorimetric  Values  by  Calculation"  are  given  results 
obtained  by  use  of  the  formula  8080  C  +  34500  (H),  in  which  "H" 
is  the  percentage  of  available  hydrogen  as  indicated  by  the 
curve  in  Fig.  4.  The  samples  are  given  numbers  corresponding 
with  those  of  the  analytical  tables  at  the  end.  The  values  are 
given  in  calories  per  kilo.  (Cal.  per  kilo  x  1.8  ==  B.T.U.  per 
pound). 

The  ultimate  analyses  which  have  served  as  the  basis  for 
some  of  the  preceding  calculations  are  embodied  in  Table 
VIII.  There  is  also  included  the  proximate  analyses  and  a 
comparison  of  values  obtained  by  the  old  and  new  methods 
Results  are  given  throughout  in  per  cent. 

[318] 


31 


H  '&  9^s 

—  ajqpsnquioQ  re^ox 

(M 

OS 

oo 

CO 

g 

CO 

CO 

g 

CO 
CO 

CO 

8 

1 

IO 

oo 

e 

CO 

CO 

o 

8 

3 

(Of  -  H)  +  0 

o 

OS 

CO 

-t1 

rH 
rH 

; 

CO 

I 

S 

i 

rH 

8 

! 
Ultimate  Analysis 

-nrtn 

^ 

o 

8 

(M 

rH 

CO 

rH 

CO* 

oo 

CO 

rH 

1 

u^XO 

o 

00 

oo 

o 

CO 

OS 

oc 

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'* 

J] 

g 

10 

CO 

OS 

rH 

rH 

-"« 

8 

rH 

3 

CO 

o 

s 

0 

rH 

rH 

Th 

rH 

rH 

rH 
OS 

0 

oo 

rH 

rH 

rH 
rH 

na^H 

rH 

OS 

00 
rH 

IO 

o 

* 

iO 

: 

rH 

CO 
CO 

"<** 

S 

10 

CO 
10 

uopsnquioQ  Xq 
uoqjBQ  I^OX 

| 

0 

CO 
CO 

OS 

s? 

rH 
CO 

00 

CO 

0 
rH 

ig 

rH 
O 

8 

CO 

1—  I 

OS 

CO 

Proximate  Analysis 

auinp^Y  Xq 
uoqxBQ  ["B^OX 

8 

8 

g 

rH 
00 

£ 

(M 

OS 

g 

£ 

OS 

rH 

CO 

£ 

OS 

CO 

CO 
CO 

CO 

CO 

rH 
CO 

10 

§ 

CO 

rH 
CO 

uoqj^Q  p^xi^j 

iO 
IO 

rH 
0 

•3 

00 

OS 

CO 

£ 

g 

"* 

i 

rH 

CO 

^Mel!WA 

0 

OS 
CO 

3 

cc 

-f 

1 

:• 

1 

OS 
iO 

OS 
CO 

CO 

CO 
CO 

OS* 

CO 

«W>H 

CO 

oo 

10 

OS 

!• 

CO 
CO 

•"** 

CO 

l^ 

co' 

10 

qsy 

iO 

iO 

CO 

CO* 

CO 
OS 

rH 

CO 

CO 
rH 

(M 
(M 

CO* 
rH 

CO 
CN 

! 

I 

rH 

• 

:    ^      :...:::: 

Bloomington,  lump  .  .  . 

0 

• 

• 

Spring  Valley,  washed  . 

Carterville,  washed 

3 

1 

Elm  wood,  3rd  vein 

• 

• 

Moweaqua,  lump 

0 

•8 

03 
qp 

of 

jf 

8 

^ 

* 

m 

? 

fl 

H 

h 

O 

ffi 

HH 

1-5 

[319] 


32 

The  samples  for  Table  IX.  were  collected  between  Feb.  8th 
and  June  8th,  1904.  These  were  obtained  at  the  mines  from 
the  surface  of  car  lots  as  made  ready  for  shipment  to  the  con 
sumer.  Amounts  varying  from  40  to  50  pounds  were  taken 
and  shipped  in  sacks  to  the  laboratory.  In  general  one  sample 
of  lump  or  screened  nut  and  one  of  screenings  or  slack  was 
procured  from  each  mine.  The  term  "  slack "  has  been  uni 
formly  applied  where  the  material  included  all  that  passed 
through  a  1^  inch  screen. 

Immediately  upon  receipt  of  the  material  it  was  reduced 
by  quartering  in  the  usual  manner.  A  check  sample,  buck 
wheat  size,  was  taken,  another  part  was  ground  to  pass  through 
a  100  mesh  sieve  and  each  was  sealed  in  a  "  lightning  "  fruit 
jar.  The  analytical  results  are  given  in  per  cent.  The  calorific 
values  are  given  in  British  thermal  units  per  pound  of  actual 
coal  as  represented  by  the  samples  and  also  in  calories  per  kilo 
of  actual  coal. 


[NOTE. — For  the  collection  of  many  of  the  samples  I  am  indebted  to  the  State 
Mine  Inspectors,  and  I  wish  here  to  express  my  appreciation  of  their  interest  and 
efficiency.  The  general  analytical  work  has  been  in  charge  of  C.  H.  McClure,  assist 
ed  by  Chas.  Edwards  and  A.  C.  Brown,  and  I  heartily  commend  the  skill  and  faith 
fulness  which  has  characterized  their  part  of  the  work. — S.  W.  P.] 

[320] 


[321] 


O     ^ 


[322] 


35 


TABLE  IX—  Generated. 
CHEMICAL  ANALYSES  AND  HEATING  VALUES  OF  ILLINOIS  COALS. 

Heat  Units. 

•««°™ 

co"     in"     CD"     co'     CD"     co      CD"     CD      in"     co"     co      iff     cb"     CD"     CD"     co"     co"     CD"     co" 

-aeqjjtisi^ug; 

^*inroincci-iocoOGOOCM'MOcoin8oS 

1—1         O         Of        i—l         O!         T—  1         i—(         of        O         rH         ^         O         T-I         of        of       T-H         T—  1         i—  1         O 

PROXIMATE  ANALYSIS. 

il  li  i. 

•jnqding 

co      -*'      co      i-!      ct      co      co      oi      :o      oi      ci      co      o>      co      o?      i-i      co      ••*      -* 

paxj^ 

COCOOCOOCMCO§(i-rtS2^iHCo8^GoS 

•jnqdjns 

i—  icotnorHi-—      OiOi»ncDT-Ht—      cicoo.'McocDO 

l>-^tlOOi^!OOiinCOC^(7!COCOCOCOO-COGOCO 

•ojqiisnqraoo 
-uo^  ItJ^ojj 

Illllllllllllllllll 

*9|q  i^jsnq 

OCCOSGCCIi-Ht—'rtil-—        "^COt—        GO^JCOin^r-icO 

GOoiGOCDCOt^OCOGO'cCcdGOCDiHi-IOJOJCDCO 
cDCDcocot—cDt—       I—       incDCDincDt—       I>-COCOCDCO 

"uoqj'Bf) 

of      co      c>>      r-i      t^      o      >n      co      -*      c?      —  i      •*      oj      in      >n      in      co      os     i^ 

CD      in      co      CD      CD      co      CD      co      m      co      co      >n      co      CD      CD      co      co      in      in 

'aoqiS,,j 

c^?5^coS^^og8^^oloSo8o>o? 

C!ccco^-coococot^i-<co'M-*-*ino3"+<ooi 

•'lOA  9HJ  J, 

t-T-iin-^aj-^co^ioco-^^iocDi-iin^cMin 

C~t         CM        6-1         C-!         Ct        G\!         fff         Ci"i         C!         O!         O!         i—  I         C1!         OI         CM        CM        CJ         O!         C-! 

JO  J93.T5A1 

co^coSoco^;nGoSS8cocM8^cot^ao 

j4^^SJS0*???453i5^Cv*':fi'c<''*"*e<'31^ 

*9jn^.sioi\[ 

§!^SSitnc5^cS8MS^^ScS^^gS 

GOt-t-osint-ecpoooosiMi-iccao^oob-b-oo 

•qsy 

o'Sl^i-li-lScOCD^ioO3CiO^l-^S:3O§S 

i-i      t~      oi      ^H      o      in      co      »n      o;      t-^      oi      co      ao      i-      GO      CD      o      -^      in 

DESCRIPTION. 

•ureas 
•[090 

CD      CD      in      in      in      m      CM      t--      t-      co      in      m      in      co      co      CD      co      co      CD 

1 

-gc«|a   so|a|a-g|a!S5-g-g-gl 

^C^GC^JaQSJKH^^Mh^^^^^^S 

SOURCE  OF  SAMPLES. 

6 

1 

1 
O 

iiB-iii  MS  i  i  ns^iU8 

5  5  ?  ?  a  Ji  i  s  s     asSoo-iS-- 

??88*^    ^||||ld*llll 

asJJS2^°°nooossssj«« 
ggg   =   §,SrsaaS-g-gSS5ltis 

»^OO«Q^00_ggs     "«§•§•__ 

iliias°;l!|||!1!l|ll 

.s.sHw^^wwcls^^ppG^^aa 

County. 

:     a     d     a     d     d     a 
a      a        '•               i:°22222idfl':iflrt 
oodcdd^^^^aa^oo       ;       ;oo 
w     2     S                                                      *     rf     o     .2     .2     >>     >•    .2     « 

:5^s-l-SgSS^^§'5^i:i:^:3 

rfc«dpipiSOct>o<D^gcSc3c3oa)£=« 
S^fe«faEc(>->'>->aja}SSSf^PHSS 

a" 
o 

qrantf 

a-      o       i               :        i        :        :        :        i        i        ;        i       i    .   i        :        :        :        : 
!::::::::      O      0)        •        i 
>     *>                        ::o»oo::^p;^fla^^ 

22       :             ;       ;3S33oo!3'>">So'>:'P 

.5      .-       c3       c3       sj       c3      V      V      V      V       M       M      "S      ^      ^Jj       S     S     •§      T 

^-^XJo^GGfia^^SacO'O'SS 

COSdS^c3a3a3c3rf330)OO^S^^ 
OOQQOOPPPPPPPPPPPSw 

?3^5525^i5;i^;';g^gSS5CrS!ftSJn 

[323] 

a 
J| 

I 


uoi^isodraoo 


•qsy 


'1089 


•o      ie      in      in 


tc'     in      tc"     iff     ro 


>n      tc      »f'     t- 


ig      -     o 


£     §      3 


OOr-GiOOJOi—OT- 


§      S 


CO         CO         —         CO         ^". 
CO        O        Cl        t-        o 

o      ^      oc      ci      QC      co      >n     -H      i-^ 

'M         IM         —         C!        Of        VI        Ot         N        O! 

"o     in     cr.     i^     =* — ^ — ^ — ^ — =~ 

OGCcio-^i-^incoc! 


3~S~sTSf  W  '•'& 

"*        CO        CO 
<M        'M        VI 


O!         1-1         O 


SI     S     o     S     Si     5 

T-;—  'core—  'ci 


fO         O         t-         ^ 


in      --C     i-^      o      av      GO 


in      in     t-      in      in 


co      »n      in      to      -^r      m 


P.         P 

S     a 


8C       O       O 
000 

dodo 


o  o  o  o 
o  c  o  o 
"S  "5  'S  "2 


i  -s  a 


TTTI 


000 

5    S    S 


* 


i-       ^       ^       i~       fl       t^ 

•£     c     a     a     c     » 

fj        0)        0)        <U        0)       "S 


o  ;  !  .2  .2  i 

^r  -o  T3  P  a 

•-:  >-  u  3  3  aj 

g  .-3  si  o  o  c 


0000 

"Sill 


s  1 

3      be 


&3      M      K 


-•?      «-     .^ 


^        O         iH         71         CO        1<         >n        -O 

«o     <-     t-     i-     <-     j-     i-     *- 


37 


o 
g 

S 
hJ 

M 

fc 

O 

02 

w 

^  S 

5     •< 

•2     b> 

5     o 

T   S 

X      H 

^H          <j 

S  S 


[325] 


38 


ovfteD 

'  fl        T~  1        OQ        —  <        1—        -^        O        Ot        in 

o     01     M     55t-oS5<Me>!-*a     m     oo 

-to      to      CD      to"     irt"     --o"     i-     i--T     o      iff     -o"     m"     >«" 


[326] 


TABLE  IX—  Continued. 
CHEMICAL  ANALYSES  AND  HEATING  VALUES  OF  ILLINOIS  COALS. 

Heat  Units, 

•souopio 

10      -r,      ^      ci      •<*      1-1      01      'O      -x      co      -o      -^      oo      <-      --fi      o      x      co      x      \ 

'.••        CC        X         I-         CO         X         O        <~        (-         ^        >O        -^<        <-        -H         CO         O        (-        >rt        C> 

i-      —      -w.      \n     \~     •*      co      ITS     ^     L-      «n      co      cs      >«      co      >«      >o      co      05 

10      co      m      co      i>o      co      co      >o      co      co      >n      co      co      co      o      co      co      co      in 

•S'uufi  \v.ui 

SSilSlliillS-l83ll§l 

Oi-HO-r-O^i-lO"ClO-^C!i-lO-^^'-lO 

PROXIMATE  ANALYSIS. 

•jnqdint; 
ITi^oj, 

"g" 

i-5      ro      co      c-i      -^'      co      c-i      co      o      i-5      co      -^5      ci      co      -*      c-i      co'      ci      co 

paxij 

-r-5i-5ci^ciTHrtr-5oOi-5rtOi-5c5Or4-r-5^ 

•.imid[ns 

o      ^H      ^      -H      c  ?      i-5      i-I      ci      o     o      f-5      co      i-5      i-5     ci      TH      ci      i-5     ci 

•oiqi'jsnqraoo 

-UOJ^    I'B'l^-Jj 

x^fS^ococoiocoSSStSoxcSSSal 

c^Slc^cl^SS^SSl^SSS^S^^S 

'8jqi^snq 
-uioo  nJ'iox 

S^^oScS^^SS^S5?l6i-cS8oo 

1-1        t-        •*        O        C!        CT.        ^        O        Oi        t>-        I'-        X        C5        O        O        OC        t~        O        CO 

COCOCOi>-tOO-OCOCOCOlOCC'COt^-CO^3COl-—        CO 

•uoq.n?o 
VR'-ioj, 

Sc!    S    1    S    £J    c5    S    e2    S    ?J    ^    §    g    £    S    §    JS    8    x 

S^S3S?S^S^SlS§c3S3SSSlS2§ 

•uoq.iuo 
poxi^ 

SiSfeS^S^^^SSS^^SwSSwS 

S5^^^SS3*SJS5S8^^58!S'5JS5^5SS;S 

•G[qnsnquioo 
i°A  ^n-*iL 

Ol        &2       Gsl        (M       CJ        7-"t        C-l        Cl        C-l        C\!        i—  (        C-!        C!        T^t        C-?        Cst        C*l        CI        *.-•! 

•uoiiisodiuoo 

ScjxoSo^xcooi^xcoSKSociS 
ci      •**      c-i      irf      cvi      co      •*      c-i      ;-o      x      ci      r-5      co      o      co      i.o      co      co      c-i 

•«nWoK 

o"      x      co      o      x'      c;      t-      cc      r-5      i-5      i-5      co      ifi      oi      i-5      t^      i^      -^      ^ 

•qsy 

c:      c:      in      •*      i-5      cc      x'      cc      irs      t>5      c-i      co      r-5      oc      od      od      x      i-5      ci 

i 
SOURUE  OF  SAMPLES.  DESCRIPTION. 

ij 

•t08*) 

lO        CO        CO        C?        C-I        l.O        lO        i-O        CO         O        CO        i-O        CO        -^H         rH         O         k-O         kfi        lO 

§ 

'vi 

>>      i     J      i^aa^aa^'^&a^a      iaa 

o^ibjo^aaoaa^iaaia^aa 

CO^EcWSr-^iJSJljSS^JSh^I^MJ 

O 

o 
a 
0 

_9       •        ;       ;       i        i               ;      6      c"      o      o      o      6      d      6      6      o       ; 

^        i        !        :        i        ;        i        :     o     00000000"° 

.5     i     i    d    d    5          !    "3    o    d   a-  a    5    5    S    «   1    a 

3  s  s  i  1  1  s  6  1  1  1  =  5  ;  1  s  i  i  i 

o<3'3oooi3'33    ss    =*    »    -3    5    s    **    =8    !f  -^ 

0       b       0       ^      >,     -       0       0      V      £      £      W  ,      £       ri       d      o      n-      'g.     c^ 

•e°°||l^°liill^SS|1 

1  1  s  §  1  1  II  i  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1 

County. 

:     !     icjo^isl     1     !    |     i     I     ia-aoo 

,-iac^^-^     •—•'-''         '•       in«fc<ti'27;aa 

|  1  |  1  1  1  I  |   a   &  &  |  s   |   g  |  |   |  | 

^rfcJ^^^^^QjQQ^              mojrfcS-jpj 

feSSu^iJooo^o-cuccSSSwfMccaa 

a 

o 
H 

ii:i:i;ilijM;;i^22 

!':                                 :''S^3flr^rOrO:'Oo 

«     !     j   ^  ^             !8t"E,||gg<«*^ 

'SaaSS:3":3S§§aj^^^^^.SS 

(H      C3      .3      -5      ^S      a       C       G       *i3rS       >C3       OJOcScitn't, 

o-c^     &ci£cs     cj     c3     ?3     rf     a—  2     ^^3^3     aaaa 

^OOOO&^O-PHO^iSffiWsCQO'COCDDDCX 

•aeqmriM  [~l2~S    S    22     3     §  '  ^    |j     "    M    g    §    §    §    §     »    «    g    g 

[327] 


40 


TITLES  OF  ARTICLES  AND  BOOKS  PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

CORPS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS, 

BETWEEN  MAY  1.  1903,  AND  MAY  1,  1904. 


PRESIDENT  A.  S.  DRAPER. 

"Co-education  in  the  United  States."  Address  before  Twentieth  Century  Club, 
Boston,  Mass.,  Jan.  17,  1903.1 

"Vital  Points  Touching  the  Public  Schools  of  a  Large  City."  Address  before 
Public  Educational  Association,  Philadelphia,  Jan.  19,  1903. ' 

' '  The  University  of  Illinois. ' '  Address  before  Association  of  0  fficers  of  State 
Institutions  at  Executive  Mansion,  Springfield,  111.,  April  8,  1903. l 

11  The  Personal  Equation  in  the  Medical  Profession."  Address  at  Commence 
ment  of  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Chicago,  May  26, 1903.  Pub  - 
lished  in  The  Plexus  for  June,  1903. 

"The  University  of  Illinois  ;  Coming  Steps  in  its  Evolution."  Illinois  Maga 
zine,  Oct.  1,  1903. 

"University  Questions  Concerning  the  Common  Schools."  Address  at  State 
Teachers'  Association  of  Illinois,  Dec.  30,  1903.  Published  in  Educational 
Review,  Feb.,  1904. 

"Government  in   American    Universities."     Address    before    North    Central 
Association  of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools,  March  25,  1904.     Published 
in  Educational  Review,  June,  1904. 
BALDWIN,  E.  C. 

"The  Relation  of  the  Greek  Character  to  its  English  Prototype."  Proceed 
ings  of  Modern  Language  Association,  July,  1903. 

"  Lyman  Abbott ;  the  Man  and  His  Message."     The  Illinois,  Feb.,  1904. 

"The  Development  of  English  Character  Writing."     Publications  of  Modern 

Language  Association,  March,  1904. 
BAKER,  I.  O. 

"Engineering  Education  in  the  United  States."  Public  Work,  London,  Eng 
land,  Jan.,  1904. 

"  Neglected  Details  in  Brick  Pavement  Construction."  Proceedings,  National 
Brick  Manufacturers'  Association,  1904. 

"  Brick  Pavements  in  America."     Public  Work,  London,  England,  May,  1904. 
BARTON,  H.  J. 

"The  College  Conference  of  the  Middle  West."     Educational  Review,  Jan., 

1904. 
BEVIER,  ISABEL,  AND  SPRAGUE,  E.  C. 

"Roasting  of  Beef."     U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  71.  Aug.,  1903. 

"The  Comfortable  Home."     The  House  Beautiful,  Jan.,  1904. 

1  Omitted  from  the  list  of  last  year. 

[329] 


42 

BROOKS,  MORGAN. 

"Electrical  Progress  in  United  States  in  1903."     Western  Electrician,  Jan.  2, 

1904. 
BROOKS,  N.  C. 

"  Lassar-Cohn's  Die  Chemie  im  taglichen  Leben."    pp.   130;    D.  C.   Heath, 
Boston,  1904. 

BURRILL,  T.  J. 

"  Bitter  Rot  of  Apples."     American  Apple  Growers'  Congress,  1903. 
"  Street  and  Highway  Planting."     Illinois  Horticultural  Society,  1903. 
"  Weeds  and  Weed  Legislation."     Illinois  Horticultural  Society,  1903. 
"  Bacteria  :     The  Friends  of  the  Farm."     Illinois  Farmers'  Institute,  1904. 
CARMAN,  A.  P. 

'*  Past  and  Present  Theories  of  Electricity."     School  Science,  June,  1903. 
CLARK,  T.  A. 

"  Biography  of  Keats."     May,  1903. 
"  Biography  of  Shelley."     June,  1903. 

Published  by  C.  M.  Parker,  Taylorville,  111. 
DAVENPORT,  E. 

"Series  of  Articles  in  Agricultural  Topics."     School  News,  1902-1903. 
"  Report  upon  the  Cooperative  Work  of  the  Experiment  Station."     U.  S.  De 
partment  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.,  1902. 
DENNIS,  W.  C. 

"  The  Treaty  of  1896  between  the  United  States  and  NewT  Granada."     Amer 
ican  Lawr  Register,  May,  1904. 
DEXTER,  E.  G. 

"  Training  for  the  Ministry."     Harper's  Weekly,  Jan.  7,  1903.1 
1 1  Some  Advantages  of  the  Accredited  System  of  College  Entrance. ' '     Educa 
tional  Conference,  Northwestern  University,  Oct.,  1903. 
"  The  Problem  of    the  Dull  Pupil."      Illinois  State  Teachers'  Association, 

Dec.,  1903. 

"  The  Influence  of  the  Weather  upon  the  Deportment  of  the  Child."     Inter 
national  Congress  of  School  Hygiene,  Nuremberg,  Germany,  April,  1904. 
' '  Appendicitis  and  the  Race. ' '     Science,  May,  1904. 
"  The  Best  College  ;  What  is  it?"     Education,  June,  1904. 
"  Weather  Influence."     pp.  325.     Macmillan,  N.  Y.,  May,  1904. 
FISK,  G.  M. 

"  Training  Needed  for  the  Consular  Service."     Michigan  Pol.  Science  Associa 
tion,  June,  1903.     Vol.  V. 
"  Review  of  Commerce,  Industry  and  Navigation  in  U.  S.  for  1903.     Review  of 

Legislation,  1903."     New  York  State  Library. 
FRASER,  W.  J. 

"  Agriculture  in  England."     Breeder's  Gazette,  June,  1903. 
"  Preventing  Contamination  of  Milk."     U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No. 
91,  Dec.,  1903. 

1    Omitted  from  the  list  of  last  year. 

[330] 


43 

"  City  Milk  Supply."     U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  92,  Dec.,  1903. 
"The  University  Dairy."     U.  of   I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  73,  Dec., 

1903. 
"  Feeding  Dairy  Cattle."     U.   of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Bull.,  No.  75,  April, 

1904. 
GREENE,  E.  B. 

"  The  History  of  Illinois."     Blue  Book  of  State  of   Illinois,  Springfield,  1904. 
"  Sectional  Forces  in  the  History  of  Illinois."     Illinois  State  Historical  Library, 

No.  2,  Springfield,  1904. 
"   The  Government  of  Illinois  ;  Its  History  and  Administration."     Macmillan, 

N.  Y.,  1904. 
GRINDLEY,  H.  S. 

•'A  Study  of  the   Nitrogenous  Constituents  of  Meats."     U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agric. 

Bureau  of  Chemistry,  Bull.  No.  81.     May,  1904. 

"      AND  MO.IONNIER,  TlMOTHY. 

"Experiments  on  Losses  in  Cooking  Meat."     U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station 

Bull.,  No.  141,  April,  1904. 
HAMMOND,  M.  B.,  AND  WESTON,  N.  A. 

"  Principles  of  Economics.      Outline  of  a  Course  of  Study  in  the  University  of 

Illinois."  pp.  20.     D.  H.  Lloyde  &  Son,  Champaign,  111. 
HAMMOND,  M.  B. 

"  Bailway  Legislation  in  Illinois  prior  to  1870."     Introduction  to  University 
Studies,  No.  6,  1904. 

HOLLISTER,  H.   A. 

"  Effect  of  the  System  of  Accrediting  Schools  by  the  University  upon  the 
High  School  and  its  Development."     Educational  Conference,  Northwest 
ern  University,  Oct.,  1903. 
KINLEY,  DAVID. 

"The  Social  Aim  in  Education."     111.  State  Teachers'  Assoc.,  Dec.,  1902. 
LAWRENCE,  F.  L. 

"  Bach  Preparatory  Studies."     Geo.  B.  Jennings  Co.,  Cincinnati,  O.,  1904. 
LINCOLN,  A.  T. 

"  The  Ternary  System,  Benzene,  Acetic  Acid  and  Water."     Journal  Physical 

Chemistry,  April,  1904. 
LYTLE,  E.  B. 

"  A  Way  to  Improve  Algebra  Teaching."     School  Mathematics,  March,  1904. 
MINER,  J.  B. 

"  Motor,  Visual  and  Applied  Ehythms  ;  an  experimental  study  and  a  revised 

explanation."     Psychological  Eeview,  Vol.  V.,  No.  4,  1903. 
MUMFORD,  H.  W. 

"  Fattening  Steers  of  the  Various  Market  Grades."     U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Sta 
tion  Bull.,  No.  90,  Dec.,  1903. 
PARR,  S.  W. 

"  The  Determination  of  Sulphur  in  Coal."     Technograph,  1903. 

[330 


44 

"The  Determination  of    Total  Carbon  in  Coal,  Soils,  etc."     Journal  of  the 

Society  of  Chemical  Industry,  Jan. ,  1904. 
"A  Neglected    Factor    in    the  Proximate  Analysis  of  Coal."     Technograph, 

1904. 
PETERS,  A.  W. 

"Metabolism  and  Division  of   Protozoa."     American  Academy  of   Arts  and 

Science,  April,  1904. 
SMITH,  MRS.  C.  B. 

"The  Value  of  the  Credit  System  as  Applied  to  High  School  Music."     The 

Messenger,  Oct.,  1903. 
STEBBINS,  JOEL. 

"The  Leonids  of  1903."     Popular  Astronomy,  Dec.,  1903. 
SIMPSON,  FRANCES. 

"Syllabus  of  the  Evolution  of  the  Library."  pp.  91.     D.  H.  Lloyde  &  Son, 

Champaign,  111.,  1903. 
SMITH,  FRANK,  AND  BARRETT,  J.  T. 

"  The  Vascular  System  and  Blood  Flow  in  Diplocardia  communis  Garman." 
Science,  Feb.,  1904. 

TOWNSEND,   E.  J. 

"  Uniform  Convergence  of  Infinite  Series."     Technograph,  1904. 
WALTON,  J.  H.,  JR. 

"Die  Jadionenkatalyse  des  Wasserstoffsuperoxyds."     Zeitschrift  fur  physik- 

alische  chemie  XL VII. ,  2. 
WATERBURY,  L.  A. 

"The  Effects  of  Manure  on  Masonry  and  Concrete." 

"Present  Practice  in  Stone  Road  Construction  in  Northern  Illinois." 

"Accuracy  and  Economy  of   Various  Methods  of  Leveling."     19th  Annual 

Rept.  Illinois  Society  of  Engineers  and  Surveyors,  1904. 
"Systematic  Municipal  Work  in  Small  Cities."     The  Technograph,  No.  18, 

1904. 


[332] 


of 


Vol.  I  SEPTEMBER,  1904  No.  8 


tubte0 


The  Granger  Movement  In  Illinois 


By 
A.  E.  PAINE,  A.  M. 


PRICE    35    CENTS 


SEntoersitp 


THE  GRANGER  MOVEMENT  IN  ILLINOIS. 
1.     Introductory: — The  Rise  of  the  Grange. 

Of  all  the  organizations  that  have  flourished  among  farmers 
since  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  none,  from  a  social  and 
economic  standpoint,  has  equaled  in  importance  the  Patrons  of 
Husbandry,  more  commonly  known  as  the  Grange.  Although 
its  immediate  organization  displays  some  peculiarities,  it  was 
the  outgrowth  of  natural  conditions,  and  its  promoters  had  a 
mine  of  experience  on  which  to  draw  in  order  to  establish  it  on 
a  solid  basis.  For  even  the  farming  class,  though  poorly  situ 
ated  for  organization,  had  societies  more  than  one  hundred 
years  old. 

The  new  order  came  into  being  shortly  after  the  Civil  War. 
It  was  a  favorable  time  for  such  a  movement.  For  two  decades  a 
feeling  of  dissatisfaction  had  been  spreading  among  the  farmers. 
For  a  time  it  had  found  sufficient  expression  in  the  political  agi 
tation  against  slavery,  but  otherwise  had  played  no  important 
part  in  the  economic  growth  of  the  nation.  It  was  temporarily 
overshadowed  by  more  vital  questions,  but  gained  new  life  in 
the  west  as  railroad  building  progressed  and  increasing  migra 
tion  brought  about  more  extensive  competition  among  the  farm 
ers.  This  competition  lowered  the  prices  of  their  products, 
while  at  the  same  time  their  purchases  had  to  be  made  at  ex 
orbitant  prices.  They  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  middlemen, 
whom  they  were  unable  to  oppose  successfully  owing  to  lack  of 
organization,  and  because  their  own  inertia  had  prevented  them 
from  undertaking  to  deal  directly  with  the  manufacturers. 

The  motives  of  the  middlemen  were  not  entirely  selfish. 
That  their  operations  brought  injury  to  the  farmer  was  rather 
their  misfortune  than  their  fault.  They  found  the  farmers 
poorly  supplied  with  cash  and  were  forced  to  sell  on  credit. 

[3351 


In  this  way  a  system  of  credit  grew  up  which  enabled  the  mid 
dlemen  to  hold  the  farmers'  trade  even  though  charging  high 
rates  for  the  supplies  which  they  furnished.1 

The  railroads,  too,  were  a  source  of  irritation.  At  the  be 
ginning  of  the  era  of  construction  in  the  West  the  people  were 
friendly  to  the  railroads.  Railroad  building  in  the  east  and  the 
opening  of  through  lines  of  transportation  in  the  few  years  be 
fore  the  war  opened  new  markets  for  the  western  farmer  and 
increased  the  demand  for  agricultural  products.  However,  dis 
criminations,  high  rates  with  their  accompanying  phenomenon 
of  stock  watering,  and  the  attitude  which  the  railroad  man 
agers  assumed  toward  the  shippers,  together  with  a  succession 
of  sharp  practices,  gradually  aroused  the  public  and  led  to  or 
ganized  opposition. 

Hostility  to  the  middlemen  and  fear  of  the  railroads  were 

/the  main  causes  of  the  movement  among  the  western  farmers 

towards  organization.     In  other  sections  of  the  country  addi- 

V  tional  causes  operated  to  produce  a  like  result.     The  farmers  of 

If  the  south  had  been  left  in  an  unfortunate  condition  as  a  result 

<C    of  the  Civil  War.     If  we  add  to  these  causes  of  discontent,  the 

]    general  feeling  of  unrest  •commonly  prevalent  among  the  tillers 

/    of  the  soil,  we  have  a  sufficient  explanation  of  the  causes  of  the 

I     widespread  movement  among  the  farming  classes,  which  result- 

\^ed  in  the  organization  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry. 

Such  were  the  conditions  when  OliverJHjidaQJiJKfillfi^  a 
clerk  in  the  Agricultural  Department  at  Washington,  was  sent 
throu^h^several  jof__the  southern  states  on  public  business.,  In> 
pressed  by  the  unfortunate  condition  of  the  people,  appreciating 
the^piiffiar^of  united  action^  and  seeing  that  there  was  no  com 
prehensive  organization  of  farmers,  he  began  to  plan  the  forma 
tion  of  such  a  combination  as  should  unite  in  one  body  the  great 
mass  of  farmers  throughout  the  country.  Upon  his  return  to 
Washington,  April  21,  1867,  he  enlisted  the  sympathy  of  a  few 
friends  who  were  interested  in  agricultural  matters,  and,  resign - 

1  Cf.  M.  B.  Hammond,  The  Cotton  Industry  in  the    United    States— ch.    V,   on 
Agricultural  Credit.     (Amer.  Econ.  Public.  New  Series,  No.  i.) 

[336] 


ing  his  position  under  the  government,  he  devoted  his  time  to 
planning  such  an  organization  and  to  perfecting  for  its  use  a 
"ritual  of  four  degrees  for  men  and  four  for  women,  unsurpassed, 
in  my  judgment,  in  the  English  language,  for  originality  of 
thought,  beauty  of  diction  and  purity  of  sentiment."1  It  is  a 
ritual  well  calculated  to  exalt  the  occupation  of  the  farmer  in 
the  minds  of  members.  Kelley  being  a  Mason,  Masonic  methods 

WPTP.  pnpjprl    PYtpJiaivply  V>y  +hn    nnTir    nndpr        As  first  Organized 

the  four  degrees  for  men  were,  Laborer,  Cultivator,  Harvester, 
Husbandman,  A  lady  friend  of  Kelley's  suggested  that  women 
be  admitted  to  the  order  with  corresponding  rlpgrp^^  The  sug 
gestion  was  acted  upon  and  thus,  almost  by  chance,  a  feature 
was  adopted  which  added  much  to  the  influence  of  the  Grange. 
The  four  degrees  for  women  at  the  beginning  were.  Maid,  Shep 
herdess.  Gleaner,  and  Matom.  Other  degrees,  open  to  both 
men  and  women,  were  added  as  occasion  demanded.  The  fifth 
degree,  Pomona  (Hope),  is  composed  of  Masters  of  subordinate 
granges  and  their  wives  who  are  Matrons.  Past  Masters  and 
their  wives  who  are  Matrons  are  honorary  members  and  eli 
gible  to  office  but  not  entitled  to  vote,  ^lora  (Charity),  is  the 
name  of  the  sixth  degree.  It  is  composed  ofTEe  Masters  of  state 
granges  and  their  wives  who  have  taken  the  degree  Pomona.  Past 
Masters  of  state  granges  who  have  taken  the  degree  Pomona 
are  honorary  members  and  eligible  to  office  but  not  entitled  to 
vote.  The  seventh  ar>ri  hfobpp*-  Hftprrp.p  i^  pgffl^f'Ffl.-if.M  Mem 
bers  of  the  National  Grange  who  have  served  one  year  therein 
may  become  members  of  this  degree  on  application  and  election. 
The  secret  work  of  the  order  is  under  the  charge  of  the  members 
of  this  degree,  who  also  sit  as  a  court  in  all  cases  of  impeachment 
of  officers  of  the  National  Grange.  Members  of  this  degree  are 
honorary  members  of  the  National  Grange  and  are  eligible  to 
office  therein  but  are  not  entitled  to  vote. 

Several  months  were  spent  upon  the  constitution  and  ritu 
al,  and  on  De,cemberjt,  1867,  the  National  Grange  of  the  order 

1  D.  W.  Aiken,    The  Grange — Its   Origin,  Progress   and  Purposes,  Special  Re 
port  2,  Misc.  Ser.  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agric.  pp.  55-64. 

3337] 


Patrons  of  Husbandry  was  establish  e(j  at  WRahinffton  wifji  a. 
seen^jfSade  up",  as  a  writer  for  the  Popular 


it  rather  sarcastically,  "of  one  fruit 
grower  and  six  government  clerks,  equally  distributed  among 
the  Post  Office,  Treasury  and  Agricultural  Departments,"1 

The  officers  were  elected  for  a  term  of  five  years.2  For  two 
years  there  were  no  additions  to  membership,  and  a  full  attend 
ance  of  the  original  members  was  not  always  secured  at  the 
annual  meeting.  Indeed,  at  the  third  annual  session,  Worthy 
Master  Saunders  delivered  his  annual  address  in  the  presence 
of  Secretary  Kelley,  his  entire  audience,  and  when  through, 
asked  the  privilege  of  printing  the  same  in  the  next  morning's 
papers  that  each  might  buy  some  to  distribute.3  At  the  fifth 
annual  session  of  the  National  Grange  the  original  seven  mem 
bers  were  reinforced  by  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Iowa  State 
Grange,  Dudley  W.  Adams. 

Immediately  after  the  organization  of  the  National  Grange, 
steps  were  taken  to  organize  subordinate  granges,  and  the  ter 
ritory  selected  for  the  first  effort  was  the  state  of  Minnesota. 
Accordingly,  Mr.  Kelley  left  Washington  April  1st,  1868,  for 
the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose.  At  this  time  the  Grange 
was  $150  in  debt,  but  Kelley  was  to  receive  a  salary  of  $2,000  a 
,year  besides  his  expenses,  provided  his  receipts  aggregated  that 
amount.  On  his  way  westward  he  organized  granges  succes 
sively  at  Harrisburg,  Fredonia,  Cincinnati,  and  Chicago.  The 
Chicago  Grange,  which  was  the  first  in  Illinois,  was  organized 
in  the  office  of  the  Prairie  Farmer,  in  the  latter  part  of  April. 
From  Chicago  Kelley  went  to  Minnesota  where  he  succeeded  in 
organizing  a  half  a  dozen  granges  by  the  close  of  the  year.  The 

1  Charles  W.  Pierson,  "Rise  of  the  Granger  Movement",  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  vol.  32, 
p  199.  The  members  were  Wm.  M.  Ireland  and  O.  H.  Kelley  (recently  trans 
ferred  from  the  Agricultural  Dept.)  of  P.  O.  Dept.,  J.  R.  Thompson  and  Rev.  John 
Trimble  of  the  Treasury  Dept.,  Wm.  Saunders  and  Rev.  A.  B.  Grosh  of  the  Agricul 
tural  Dept.,  and  F.  M.  McDowell,  a  vineyardist  of  Wayne,  New  York. 

2  Saunders,  Master;  Thompson,  Lecturer;  Ireland,    Treasurer;  Kelley,  Secre 
tary.  —  Special  Report  2,  Misc.  Ser.  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agric.  p.  57. 
3  Special  Report  etc.,  2,  p.  58. 

[338] 


Minnesota  State  Grange  was  organized  on  February  23rd,  1869. 
In  Iowa,  in  1869,  he  was  still  more  successful,  but  the  Iowa 
State  Grange  was  not  organized  until  January  12th,  1871.  No 
charters  were  issued  to  a  sub-grange  unless  at  least  nine  men 
and  four  women  were  pledged  as  members,  while  the  number 
of  charter  members  was  limited  to  thirty,  at  least  ten  of  whom 
must  be  women.  The  initiation  fee  seems  to  have  varied  some 
what  from  time  to  time,  but  for  the  charter  members  was  usu 
ally  about  three  dollars  for  men  and  fifty  cents  for  women. 
Men  who  joined  later  paid  four  to  five  dollars,  and  women  two 
to  three  dollars,  as  a  membership  fee.  The  order  grew  slowly 
j!oj-_several  years.  At  the  close  of  1871  the  secretary  was  able 
to  report  that  the  increase  in  membership  had  been  four  times 
as  great  in  that  year  as  in  the  year  preceding.  After  1871  the 
growth  was  more  rapid  and  at  the  sixth  annual  session,  Janu 
ary  8,  1873,  delegates  were  present  from  eleven  states.  Four  of 
these  delegates  were  women.  There  were  at  this  time  twenty- 
three  state  granges.1  During  the  year  1872  1,074  subordinate 
granges  were  organized,  making,  altogether,  about  1,300.  The 
next  two  years  saw  a  still  more  rapid  growth,  8,668  being  added 
in  1873,  and  11,941  in  1874,  making  a  total  of  22,000  granges 
with  an  average  membership  of  a  little  over  30.2  The  grange 
was  prospering,  the  treasury  was  full  and  there  was  a  rush  for 
membership.  A  feverish  activity  seemed  to  pervade  the  order. 
No  undertakings  were  too  big,  no  enterprises  too  grand,  to  be 
attempted.  One  in  particular,  carried  on  during  its  period  of 
greatest  activity,3  but  later  given  up  on  account  of  the  expense, 
was  of  considerable  importance.  This  was  its  system  of  month 
ly  crop  reports/  Blanks  were  sent  from  the  office  of  the  secre 
tary  to  each  of  the  subordinate  granges  in  time  to  reach  the 
local  grange  before  its  meeting,  the  first  week  in  each  month. 
The  secretary  of  the  subordinate  grange  was  then  enabled  to 

1  Special  Report,  etc.  2,  p.  58 

2  Prairie  Farmer,   Mar.  31,  1877. 

3  Commenced  in  May  or  June,  1872.     See  Prairie  Farmer,  May  18,  1872. 

4  Special  Report  etc. ,2,  p.  62. 

[339] 


8 

obtain  the  necessary  data,  and  return  the  required  information. 
On  the  basis  of  these  replies,  the  reports  were  compiled  by  the 
fifteenth  of  each  month.  In  this  way  the  Grange  bulletins  were 
issued  before  those  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  are 
said  to  have  been  more  reliable.1  This  and  other  accomplish 
ments  gave  a  prestige  to  the  order,  so  that  newspapers  and  poli 
ticians  became  interested  in  it  and  the  Grange  became  a  factor 
in  politics. 

The  inevitable  reaction  was  not  long  in  coming.  The  mem 
bership  declined,  the  activity  decreased.     Various  reasons  were 
assigned  for  the  decline.  TF~is~saiT!~l)EaF  the  Grange  lacked  ji 
pnrpnsft.tha.t  its  energies  were  scattered,  that  it  was 


unable  to  accomplish  its  undertakings  and  that  in  consequence, 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  members  subsided.  While  such  an  hy 
pothesis  affords  a  partial  explanation,  it  does  not  accurately  or 
fully  describe  the  conditions.  The  Grange  did  have  definite 
objects,  which,  however,  varied  from  time  to  time.  By  the 
founders  and  earliest  members  the  social  and  educationaliaat-  . 
ures  were  emphasized.  They  desired  to  bring  together^the 
farmers  and  their  fa  mi  lies  and  to  develop  through  this  acquaint 
anceship  that  fraternal  feeling  so  notoriously  lacking  armong 
them.  They  aimed,  moreover,  to  bring  about  a  more  intelligent 
and  sciea.i'-itifl  ftnil.lm.i.iim  u£  tke"soiL 

.The  success  of  the  movement,  however,  soon  attracted 
idealists  and  disgruntled  politicians,  who  came  into  itjnasEefl 
as  farmers,  each  with  his  o"wn  plan  for  revolutionizing  ,the 
world.  The  grangers,  confident  because  of  what  they  had  ac 
complished,  were  ready  to  undertake  new  plans  even  though  in 
the  main  they  were  visionary.  As  a  consequence  gigantic 
schemes  of  co-operation  in  buying  and  selling  were  undertaken 
and  entrusted  to  inexperienced  men.  Partly  because  of  over- 
confidence  and  mismanagement,  partly  because  of  the  opposi 
tion  of  the  middlemen,  almost  every  attempt  of  this  kind  re 
sulted  in  financial  loss.  These  failures  not  only  caused  loss  to 

1  Special  Report,  etc.  2,  p.6z.    Cf.  "The  Grange  reports  were  costly  and  often  un 
reliable  but  had  proved  valuable."    C.  W.  Pierson  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.  32:  369. 

[340] 


those  immediately  interested  but  also   discredited  the  whole 
movement  in  the  eyes  of  the  public. 

Moreover,  undue  political  activity,  partisan  expressions  on 
[the  tariff  and  currency,1  together  with  radical  and  sometimes 
\  unwise  railroad  legislation,   gradually  brought  about  internal 
\  dissension.     The  farmer  was  inclined  to  place  too  much  depend- 
Jence  on  legislation  and  too  little  on  self-help  to  accomplish  the 
desired  ends.     Of  course  he  did  not  grow  rich  immediately.     In 
\   fact  there  was  little  sign  of  improvement  in  his  condition.     He 
]  was  disappointed  with  the  outcome  and  ignorant  of  the  reason 
/  for  the  failure  of  his  plans  ;  and  seeing  no  prospect  of  securing 
!  more  favorable  results,  he  soon  lost  hope. 
\       The  discontent  which  had   been  growing  for  several  years 
came  to  a  head  at  the  meeting  held  at  Charleston,  S.  C.,  early 
in  1875.     At  this  meeting  every  State  Grange  was  represented, 
sixty-six  members  being  present.     There  was  heated  discussion 
on  several  matters,  but  the  contest  found  its  chief  expression  on 
the  financial  methods  of  the  National  Grange,  which  by  means 
of  fees   had   accumulated  thousands  of   dollars   and  had  paid 
rather  extravagant  salaries  to  its  officers.2     At  the  end  of  the 
discussion  it  was  voted  to  distribute  the  funds  of  the  Grange 
among  the  subordinate  granges  in  good  standing.     Accordingly 
about  $50,000  was  distributed,  or  about  $2.50  for  each  grange.3 
Internal  dissension  increased  during  the  next  few  years,  many 
who  had  joined  in  the  stirring  days  of  1873  and1 1874  withdrew 
from  membership,  and  many  granges  discontinued  their  meet 
ings  entirely.     As  there  was  less  agricultural  discontent  in  the 
country  at  this  time  few  granges  were  organized.     The  receipts 
of  the  National  Grange  fell  off   and  the  salaries  of  the  officers 


1  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.   32:373.     Prairie    Farmer,    May  9,    1874;  Feb.  2,    1878;    Oct.    19, 
1878.     See  also  Proceedings  of   a  Convention   of    Farmers  held  at  Bloomington   Oct. 
16-17,  1872. 

2  Master,  $2,000  per  year;  Secretary,  $2,500  per  year.— Pop.  Sci.  Mo.  32:372. 

3  Prairie  Farmer  Feb.  20,  1875.     Pop.  Sci.  Mo.  32:372. 

[341] 


10 

had  to  be  reduced.1  Politicians  showed  less  interest  and  the 
space  devoted  to  grange  topics  in  the  newspapers  gradually  de 
creased.  However,  although  the  number  of  granges  had  de 
creased,  the  average  membership  per  grange  had  increased  from 
3U  to  40.2  By  1880  those  who  had  joined  the  Grange  for  any 
other  purpose  than  the  objects  stated  in  its  constitution  had, 
for  the  most  part,  withdrawn,  and  the  decline  in  membership 
seems  to  have  stopped.'  At  the  same  time  the  political  agita 
tion  within  the  Grange  came  to  an  end  and  its  efforts  were  de 
voted  more  and  more  to  the  fulfillment  of  its  original  aims. 
From  this  time  a  revival  of  interest  may  be  noted,  more  es 
pecially  in  the  New  England  States.  At  the  meeting  in  Topeka 
in  1888,  thirty-six  states  reported,  and  thirty  were  represented. 
By  1889  the  total  membership  had  increased  to  150,000  and  the 
annual  reports  for  the  last  few  years  show  indications  of  a 
healthy  growth. 

2.     The  Illinois  Grange:     Its  Organization  and  Growth. 

The  movement  in  Illinois  was  similar  to  that  in  other 
states.  As  already  stated,  Mr.  Kelley,  the  founder  of  the  na 
tional  order,  organized  the  first  grange  in  the  state  in  the  latter 
part  of  April,  1868,  in  the  office  of  the  Prairie  Farmer.  The 
number  of  granges  organized  each  year  for  the  eight  succeed 
ing  years  is  as  follows:3 

In  1869....     2  In  1873....   761 

In  1870....     1  In  1874....   704 

In  1871....     5  In  1875....     50 

In  1872....   69  In  1876....     27 

Up  to  October  13, 1898,  altogether  one  thousand  seven  hun 
dred  and  twenty-two  subordinate  granges  had  been  organized, 

1  Secretary,  $2,500  to  $2,000,   Master,  $2,000  to  $1,200.     Later:  Master,  $1,200  to 
$1,000;  Treasurer,  $600  to  $500;  Secretary,  $2,ooc  to  $1,500.  In  1879,  that  of  the  Master 
was  reduced  to  nothing,  that  of  the  Secretary  to  $600. — Pop.  Sci.    Mo.  32:372,  373  and 
Prairie  Farmer  Jan.  12,  1878. 

2  Prairie  Farmer. 

3  These   figures    were    furnished  by   the  Secretary   of   the  State  Grange,  Thos. 
Ready,  Dunlap,  111, 

[342] 


11 

in  one  hundred  and  one  counties  of  the  state,  with  Pomona,  or 
county,  granges  in  most  of  the  counties.  These  sub-granges 
meet  weekly,  and  the  Pomona  granges  quarterly  or  monthly. 

The  State  Grange  was  organized  Mar.  5,  1872,  and  meets 
yearly.  It  is  made  up  of  delegates  from  the  sub-granges  and 
the  Pomona  granges.  The  first  Grand  Master  was  Alonzo  Gol- 
der  of  Whiteside  county.  His  successors  in  office  were  A.  P. 
Forsyth,  of  Edgar  county,  E.  A.  Giller  of  Green  county,  J.  M. 
Thompson  of  Will  county,  and  Oliver  Wilson  of  Putnam  coun 
ty,  who  now  occupies  the  position. 

Prom  the  figures  given  it  is  evident  that  the  palmy  days  of 
grange  activity  in  Illinois  were  in  the  years  1873  and  '74,  dur 
ing  which  five-sixths  of  the  total  number  of  granges  in  the  state 
were  organized.  .From  various  causes  the  next  few  years_s.a.w 
a^apid  decUneJ-njoumerical  strength.  The  large  corn  crops  of 
1 871-73  filled  every  crib  and  available  store-house  to  overflowing. 
Prices  fell  and  freight  rates  rose,  until  five  or  six  bushels  of  grain 
wftrft  rpqnired  to  get  one  busheTTo  MeW  York  Clt.V.  The  average 
local  price  of  corn  in  Illinois  in  December,  1872,  was  only  twen 
ty-four  cents  a  bushel,1  and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that 
it  fell  as  low  as  fifteen  cents  a  bushel  in  some  localities.  It  be 
came  more  profitable  to  use  corn  for  fuel  than  to  sell  it.2  A 
general  money  stringency  ensued,  culminating:  in  the  panic  of 
1873.  The  depression  was  continued  by  the  unusually  large 
crop  of  wheat  in  1873-4,3  which  helped  to  overstock  the  market 

1  Monthly  Reports  of  the  Dept.  of  Agriculture  for  the  year  1872,  p.  470. 

2  Statement   of   Mr.   Jos.  B.  Carter,   Supt.   Champaign,  111.,  Schools.     Also    Pop- 
Sci.  Mo.,  32:203. 

3  The  crops  of  corn  and  wheat  for  several  years  were  : 

CORN. 
Year.  Bushels.  Value. 

1870 1,094,255,000 $540,520,456 

1871 991,898,000 430,355,210 

1872 1,092,719,000 385,736,210 

WHEAT. 

1870 233,884,700 $288,766,969 

1871 230,722,400 264,075,851 

1872 249,997,100 278,522,068 

1873 281,264,700 300,669,533 

1874 308,102,700 265,881,167 

Year  Book,  Dept.  of  Agric.  1897, 
[343] 


12 

with  bread  stuffs,  bring  down  their  prices,  and  increase  the  pro 
portion  of  the  product  required  to  pay  the  cost  of  transporta 
tion.  In  the  meantime  the  railroad  law  of  1871,  against  dis 
criminations  in  freight  rates,  was  declared  unconstitutional.1 
The  farmer  was  inclined  to  blame  the  railroad  management  for 
all  his  troubles,  which  were  by  no  means  light  The  CrediF 
Mobilier  lent  added  cause  for  his  fault  rinding?  The  grange  or 
ganizers,  whose  salaries  depended  upon  the  number  of  granges 
formed,  no  doubt  fomented  the  discontent  and  urged  the  for 
mation  of  granges  as  a  panacea  for  all  ills.  Thus,  many  who 
had  no  jgal  com  prehension  of  the  principles^o^the  Grange 
jomejj^tE^Qrganization  In~thel£Iya^ue^searcF  for  a  remedy  for 
tjmir  discontent, 

At  first  Iowa  and  Illinois  took  the  lead  in  the  Grange 
movement.  Illinois  never  held  first  place  either  in  the  number 
of  subordinate  granges  or  in  the  number  of  individual  members; 
but  on  June  25,  1873,  she  stood  second,  with  517  subordinate 
granges,  Iowa  being  first.2  Before  Nov.  15  of  the  same  year,  Illi 
nois  had  yielded  second  place  to  Kansas.  The  number  of  granges 
in  Illinois  had  increased,  however,  to  712,3  and  there  was  much 
enthusiasm,  especially  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state.  At  the 
December  meeting  of  the  State  Grange  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
Masters  of  subordinate  granges  were  present,  and  it  was  estim 
ated  that  there  were  eight  hundred  granges  in  the  state.  The  work 
of  organization  was  energetically  pushed  during  the  following 
year  and  the  number  of  granges  in  the  state  nearly  doubled. 
Still,  at  the  close  of  the  year,  Illinois  was  surpassed  by  three 
states,  Missouri,  Iowa  and  Indiana/  The  number  of  granges  in 
the  country  had  increased  to  21,208,  of  which  Illinois  had  1,522. r> 
Other  organizations  of  farmers  had  sprung  up  in  the  meantime, 
but  the  Grange,  not  only  because  it  was  a  secret  order  and  un- 

Report  of  R.  R.  &  W.  Commissioners  for  1873  gives  decision. 

Prairie  Farmer,  July  5,  1873. 

Ibid.,  Nov.  15,  1873. 

Ibid.,  Dec.  26,  1874. 

Ibid 

[344] 


13 

like  any  of  the  others,  but  also  on  account  of  the  energy  of  the 
officers,  and  its  excellent  discipline,  held  its  own  and  gained 
a  large  share  of  the  increase.  The  state  Grange  ante-dated  the 
State  Farmers'  Association  by  a  few  months,  but  there  were 
numerous  local  clubs  in  the  state  before  the  period  of  activity  in 
the  organization  of  sub-granges.1  It  was  Mr.  Kelley's  plan  to 
make  of  the  Grange  a  great  national  organization  under  whose 
banner  the  farmers  of  the  entire  country  should  combine  for 
mutual  advantage.  He  believed  and^preached  that ;the  Graajge 

.was  fViA  hpst.;  in  fa.^.f,  fhp  nn1y3  orgra.rn7a.tirm  adapted  to  securing 

the  good  of  the  farmer,  and  it  was  his  wish  that  all  farmers' 
clubs  should  reorganize  as  granges.  His  feeling  was  shared  by 
many  of  his  followers,  and  often  resulted  in  aggressive  action, 
which  in  many  cases  was  resented.  Thus  a  feeling  of  rivalry, 
and_ftven  hostility,  gr^w  np  hpf.w^pp  the  granges  and  the  farm 
ers'  clubsj  At  first  the  advantage  seemed  to  lie  with  the  grange! 
Thq  secrecy  ^f  tho  ordnr,  combiner!  wifh  its  excellerr^orgainz  a  - 
tion,  made  it  a  marked  body,  and  the  term  Grange  soon__came 
to  stand  for  the  farmers',  movement.  All  classes  were  eager  to 


1  Grange,  Mar.  5, 1872;  State  Farmers'  Association  Oct.  16,  1872. 

2  S.  M.  Smith,  the   Secretary  of  the  State   Farmers'  Association,  in  his  report  at 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  association  at  Decatur,  Dec.  16-18,  1873,  calls  attention  to 
the  jealousy  existing  between  clubs  and  granges.     He  gives  the  number  of  clubs  in 
the  state  as  820  and  the  number  of  granges  as  549.     He  complains  that  many  of  the 
granges  were  delinquent  in  the  payment  of  the  per  capita  tax  of  ten  cents  a  head, 
"acting  probably  under  instructions  from  those  in  authority".     He  attributes  this  ac 
tion  to  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  Grange  and  implies  that  the  feeling  is  mutual.     He 
then  attempts  by  a  brief  survey  of  the  past  to  show  that  the  Grange  was  not  justified 
in  its  position,  pointing  out  that  at  the  first  convention  of  the  Farmers'  Association, 
which  was  held  at  Kewanee,  the  grangers  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  deliberations, 
and  nearly  one  half  ot  the  offices  of  the  Association  were  filled  by  them  ;  and  further 
more,  that  the  Bloomington   convention  in   January,   1873,    was  composed  largely  of 
grangers.     The  granges,  he  said,  had  been  well  treated  by  the  Association  and  should 
by  all  means  fulfill  their  obligations  to  it.     For  rivalry  of  such  a  nature  is  injurious 
to  the  cause  of  the  farmer,  and  both  organizations  are  needed,  since  they  are  very  dif 
ferent  in  character,  and  many  to  whom  one  organization  did  not  appeal  would  become 
enthusiastic  members  of  the  other. 


[3451 


14 

join.  "Lawyers,  doctors,  merchants,  Shylocks  and  sharpers",1 
vied  with  one  another  in  exhibiting  their  knowledge  of  agricul 
ture  and  their  interest  in  agricultural  matters,  in  order  to  be 
come  grangers. 

The  Grange  apparently  held  an  enviable  position,  but  in 
jtfi  YftTT  r™™i""n»n  Iny  r>niinnn  for  itff  downfall  On  the  on e 
hfl.nrl  the  jealousy  between  it,  a.nH  nth ftr-ia.nomrs!..  .organ i /q.t.jjQfls 

gradually  p;rftw  iritiO  g^^^^^n^lflfe  hostility.  diverteiLit&,atteji - 
ti.o.n  from  its  real  purpose,  and  weakened  its  _.eff ecjjven ess  ..as 
an  organization.  Moreover,  the  public,  as  a  ruler  blamed  the 
Grange  tor  acts  of'violence  committed^  by  the  farmers  ^nrUor 
foolish  and  dangerous  legislation  passed  through  their  influ 
ence,  but  failed  to  credit  the  order  with  the  good  accomplished. 
Many  of  the  weaker  members  were  dismayed  by  criticism  and 
surrendered  their  membership.  Dissatisfaction  with  the  policy 
of  the  National  Grange,  or  with  the  forms  in  the  subordinate 
granges,  led  others  to  withdraw.  Same  were  c.nn  vi n cad  thaj;, 
the  Grange  had  performed  its  mission  and^va^jaa-Iaiigfii' jieed- 
ed  ;  others  IpsFTnTerest  merely  because  the  order  had  become 
less  popular.  .  S&jipubt  the  improvement  in  business  also  was 
favorable  to  apathy  on  the  part  of  the  Grange. 

For  these  reasons  a  decline  in  membership  began  in  1875. 
Many  new  granges  were  organized  during  that  and  the  follow 
ing  year,  but  still  more  were  allowed  to  lapse;  and  by  the  close 
of  1877  there  were  only  646  granges  in  the  state,  Vith  12,639 
members,  an  average  of  less  than  twenty  each.  Illinois  at  this 
time  ranked  7th  in  number  of  granges  and  14th  in  number  of 
members.2  The  lowest  point  which  the  Grange  has  touched 
since  the  "days  of  1873-4",  was  reached  in  1885,  when  there  were 
only  96  sub-granges  in  the  state.  Since  that  time  the  number 
has  varied  between  one  and  two  hundred,  there  being  in  October, 
1898,  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  granges  in  forty-three 

1  Lawyers,  to  get  clients;  doctors,  to  get  patients;  merchants,  to  get  customers; 
Shylocks,  to  get   their  pound  of  flesh;  and   sharpers   to   catch   the  babes  from  the 
woods. — D.  W.  Aiken  in  Special  Report,  etc.,  2,  p.  61. 

2  Prairie  Farmer,  Dec.  8,  1877. 

[346] 


15 

counties.1  Numerically,  the  Grange  became  weaker,  but,  re 
lieved  of  its  load  of  useless  freight,  it  has  continued  its  exist 
ence,  steadily  though  slowly  growing  stronger,  and  in  the  opin 
ion  of  the  Secretary  is  now  "stronger  in  real  effort  than  ever 
before."  /Meanwhile,  the  Grange,  though  failing  to  accomplish 
all  that  many  of  its  enthusiastic  admirers  hoped,  certainly  has 
produced  some  results  of  much  importance,  especially  in  con 
nection  with  the  railroads.  J 

3.     The  Grange  and  the   Railroads. 

While  railroads  were  comparatively  new  in.  this  section  of 
the  country,  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  them  by  the 
farmers  were  over-estimated.  Extravagant  hopes  of  speedy 
riches  led  many  of  small  means,  as  well  as  some  in  comforta 
ble  circumstances,  to  move  to  the  newly  opened  prairies  of  the 
West.  Each  new  settlement  looked  forward  to  a  rapid  and 
continuous  nunerical  growth  and  on  the  approach  of  a  new 
road  endeavored  to  bring  it  into  the  neighborhood.  Large  boun- 


nities  in^order  to  ^  secure  a  road.  The  railroads  naturally  took 
advantage  of  the  rivalry  between  flifFfyrftnf.  towns  f.n  ma>P  PYPPS- 
sive  demand^.  In  many  cases  towns  gave  promises  which  were 
hard  to  fulfill,  and  issued  bonds  to  an  amount  which  they  could 
ill  afford.  The  bonus  was  given  readily  and  at  the  time  was 
thought  to  be  a  good  ir  vestment.  But  the  donors  soon  learned 
that  the  railroads  were  by  no  means  charitable  organizations, 

1  The  annual  reports  for  the  four  years  ending  in  December,  1903,  show  a  total  in 
crease  during  that  time  of  26  granges  and  2,140  members;  5  new  granges  and  300 
new  members  are  reported  for  the  current  year  thus  far,  April  19,  1904.  The  report 
of  the  treasurer  in  December,  1903,  showed  the  amount  on  hand  to  be  $2,921.64.  The 
present  officers  are,  —  Master,  Oliver  Wilson,  Magnolia,  Putnam  Co.  ;  Overseer,  W. 
J.  Miller,  St.  Clair  Co.  ;  Lecturer,  G.  F.  Bell,  Lostant,  LaSalle  Co.  ;  Steward,  E.  S. 
Helms,  St.  Clair  Co.  ;  Asst.  Steward,  E.  R.  Simmons.  Jersey  Co.  ;  Chaplain,  Mrs. 
Katherine  Stahl,  Madison  Co.  ;  Treasurer.  D.  Q.  Trotter,  Jersey  Co.  ;  Secretary, 
Miss  Jeannette  E.  Yeates,  Dunlap,  Peoria  Co.  ;  Gate  Keeper,  Eric  Lindstrom,  Henry 
Co.  ;  Ceres,  Miss  Florence  A.  Given,  Putnam  Co.  ;  Pomona,  Miss  Lela  M.  Eyerly, 
Fulton  Co.  ;  Flora,  Miss  Mary  M.  Zoll,  Fulton  Co.  ;  Lady  Steward,  Mrs.  L.  B.  Seiler, 
Wabash  Co.  Facts  furnished  by  ex-Secretary  Thomas  Keady,  Dunlap,  111. 

[347] 


16 

and  that  the  development  of  the  country  was  an  incident  rather 
than  a  motive  in  their  organization.     Stock-watering  was  com 
monly  practised,  wjt>>  ^*  Q^.n.nTYipa.-nyingftxt.ortiinna.t.ftratfts.  Ac 
curate  figures,  showing  the  extent  to  which  this  practice  was 
carried,  are  hard  to  get,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  amount 
of  watered  stock   issued  frequently  equalled   or  exceeded  the 
paid  up  capital.1  T|IF>  farnripyg  «nm^  cam?  t^  t-hf*  ^n^l"^"  f,ha_f. 
thexhad  beenJiaQdwinkp.d  by  the  railway  companies.    _A  feel- 
ing  of  resentment  was  created,  which  might  have  beerToveF- 
come  and  even  destroyed  by  a  little  consideration  on  the  part 
of  the  roads  :  but  the  latter  foolishly  disregarded  opporbumties 
for  conciliation,  and  blindly  pursued  whatj'hfy  rrm^ivfHlTQjfi 
their  own  interests.     Each  company  arranged  its  rates  with  a 
view  to  securing  as" large  a  share  of  the  traffic  as  possible.  This 
led  to  discriminations  of  two  sorts.2    In  the  first  place,  those 
/points  fortunate  enough  to  have  two  or  more  competing  roads 
were  favored  with  very  low  rates,  so  low,  indeed,  as  to  bring  a 
\   loss  to  the  roads.    In  consequence,  they  sought  to  recoup  them- 
\  selves  by  extortionate  charges  at  intermediate  points.     In  this 
Way  it  frequently  happened  that  it  cost  more  to  ship  goods  100 
^than  150  miles,  under  similar  circumstances,  on  the  same  road. 
\    Smaller  towns  having  but  one  road  were  thus  placed  at  a  great 
j  disadvantage.     It  became  necessary  for  such  towns  to  seek  the 
/  favor  of  the  roads,  since  an  arbitrary  use  of  the  power  of  dis- 
/    crimination  might  render  a  business  profitable  at  one  place  and 
ruinous  at  another.     Indeed,  the  very  existence  of  towns  was 
placed  at  the  mercy  of  the  railroads.     Personal  discriminations 
were  also  made.     There  were  no  regular  tariffs,  and  every  cus 
tomer  had  to  make  his  own  bargain.  If  he  had  enough  influence 

1  No.   Am.   Rev.,  120:415;    Larrabee,    The    Railroad   Question,    172:247;    Cook, 
The  Corporation   Problem,   24ff.;    Second  Annual  Report  of   Interstate   Commerce 
Commission,  63;    Hadley,  Railroad  Transportation,  101-2;    Hudson,   The  Railroads 
and  the    Republic,  267-95;    Cowles,    262-3;    Stickney,   Railway  Problem,    196-201; 
Poor's  Manual,  1884. 

2  Hudson,  The   Railroads   and   the  Republic,   25-67;  Jeans,  Railway  Problems, 
519-524;  Hadley,  Railroad  Transportation,  100-125;  Alexander,  Railway  Practice,  5-23; 
Dabney,  Public  Regulation  of  Railways,  67-174;  Dixon,  State  R.  R.  Control*  48-77. 

[348] 


17 

to  secure  favorable  terms  he  possessed  a  decided  advantage 
over  others  with  less  weight,  or  who  had  incurred  the  displeas 
ure  of  the  roads.  These  discriminations  bore  heavily  upon  a 
large  number  of  people,  so  that  instead  of  securing  advantages 
by  the  proximity  of  a  road  they  were  frequently  placed  at  a 
disadvantage.  Then,  too,  the  railroad  charges  varied  from  year 
to  year.1  As  long  as  the  supply  of  agricultural  produce  was 
limited,  prices  remained  high  and  railroad  charges  fell.  But 
favorable  seasons  and  additional  producers  soon  increased  pro 
duction.  Prices  fell  and  at  the  same  time  the  roads  raised  their 
freight  rates,  expecting  to  have  all  the  freight  they  could  haul 
even  at  the  advanced  rate,  since  the  farmers,  having  more  grain 
than  could  be  consumed  on  the  farm,  rather  than  hold  their  crops 
for  higher  prices,  would  continue  to  market  them  so  long  as  the 
returns  were  sufficient  to  pay  the  cost  of  transportation.  Thus^ 
in_  seeking  to  regulate  thejr  rates  so  as  to  charge  "what  the 
traffic  would  bear",  theymade the  mistake  of  charging  what  it 
would  not  bear.  The  results  were  unfortunate  to  the  compa- 
nies  and  distressing  to  the  farmers.  The  latter  thought  that 
they  were  being  robbed  by  the  railroads  and  watched  eagerly 
for  an  opportunity  to  retaliate.  Under  such  circumstances  it 
is  not  surprising  that  when  the  bonds  issued  by  counties,  towns, 
etc.,  in  payment  of  railroad  bounties,  fell  due,  there  should  be 
serious  opposition  to  their  payment  and  in  many  cases  absolute 
repudiation. 

Had  the  men  who  owned  the  railroads  been  western  men, 
men  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  western  country,  men  who 
recognized  the  community  of  interest  between  themselves  and 
the  western  farmer,  their  actions  would  certainly  have  been 
very  different,  ^ut  they  were  for  the  most  part,  residents^  of 
the  eastfvrn  ataf^  a-nd  F^l^r],2  and  were  ignorant  of  the  agri- 
(vnlf.nrfl.1  sif.na.f.inp  in  the  yest.  _Thev  cared  little  for  the  West 
or  for  the  western  farmer,  and  failed  to  recognize  the  principle 
that  in  order  to  run  railroads  successfully  public  opinion  must 

1  Bulletin  No.  15  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture. 

2  C.  F.  Adams,  Jr.,  in  No.  Am.  Rev.,  120:398,  399,  400-402. 

[249] 


18 

not  be  antagonized.  While  the  railroads  took  this  view  of  the 
matter  it  was  not  strange  that  the  farmers  of  the  West  found 
cause  for  complaint  about  the  management. 

Aside  from  aU^this^tbere  was._still  another  cause  for  cgm- 
plaint,  in  the  insulting  treatment  which  patrons  of  the  road.sjajb- 
times  received  at  the  hands  of  railroad  officials  and  employees.^ 
This  discourteous  attitude  assumed  by  the  officials  and  employ7" 
ees  is  well  set  forth  by  E.  W.  Martin  in  his  "History  of  the 
Granger  Movement".1     The  same  abuse  is  also  illustrated  in  an 
article  by  C.  F.  Adams,  Jr.,  appearing  in  the  North  American 
Eeview,2  an  extract  from  which  is  given  herewith  : 

uln  New  England  the  condition  of  aif  airs  is  bad  enough  ;  and  more 
than  one  important  corporation  has  experienced  great  injury,  or  finds 
itself  leading  an  existence  of  perpetual  warfare  and  turmoil,  solely 
through  the  inability  of  some  prominent  and,  perhaps,  otherwise  val 
uable  official  to  demean  himself  with  consideration  towards  his  broth 
er  man.  What,  in  this  respect,  is  seen  here  in  the  East  is  absolutely 
nothing  to  what  prevails  in  the  West.  Taken  as  a  class,  the  man 
ners  of  the  employees  of  the  western  railroad  systems  are  probably 
the  worst  and  most  offensive  to  be  found  in  the  civilized  world.  It 
is  difficult  to  see  why  the  official  should  regard  the  traveler  or  the 
person  having  dealings  with  the  railroad  as  his  natural  enemy ;  but 
it  is  apparent  that  he  does.  If  it  were  an  ordinary  manifestation  of 
the  American  fondness  for  asserting  equality  on  all  occasions  it 
would  be  endurable  ;  it  commonly,  however,  partakes  of  a  more  ag 
gressive  and  hostile  character.  A  ticket  is  sold,  and  the  purchaser 
at  the  same  time  is  made  to  feel  that  a  favor  has  been  conferred  up 
on  him,— that  he  is  on  no  account  to  ask  any  questions, — and,  indeed, 
had  best  speedily  remove  himself  out  of  the  way.  The  gruffness  of 
the  baggage-master  is,  as  a  rule,  only  exceeded  by  his  violence  to  the 
baggage.  Indeed,  it  would  sometimes  seem  that  it  must  be  a  prom 
inent  rule  laid  down  by  the  companies  for  the  guidance  of  their  ser 
vants,  that  they  are  to  show  the  least  possible  degree  of  respect  or  con 
sideration  to  any  person  having  business  with  the  company  ;  and  so 
thoroughly  is  this  principle  applied,  that — always  excepting  Mr.  Pull 
man's  cars,  in  which  an  excellent  discipline  is  maintained — the  rail- 

1  Pages  98-132. 

2  Vol.  120:394-424. 

[35°J 


19 

roads  of  the  west  are  the  single  institution  anywhere  to  be  found 
from  whose  servants  money  will  not  at  all  times  buy  civility  even  of 
the  commonest  kind.  I  very  well  remember  an  amusing  illustration 
of  this  rule  which  happened  to  me  about  two  years  ago.  One  autumn 
day  I  found  myself  at  the  station  at  Omaha  about  to  take  the  east 
ward  train.  In  the  baggage-room  of  the  station,  I  had,  some  hours 
before,  left  quite  a  heavy  trunk  for  which  I  now  presented  my  check. 
The  sternly  silent  baggage-master  found  it,  seized  it,  and,  without  a 
word  tumbled  it  out  of  the  door  at  my  feet  and  disappeared  into  the 
recesses  of  his  lair.  The  train  I  was  to  take  was  some  distance  down  the 
same  platform  on  which  I  was  standing,  perhaps  a  hundred  yards.  I 
could  not  well  carry  the  trunk  to  it,  and  it  seemed  foolish  to  abandon 
it,  especially  as  directly  in  front  of  me  an  assistant  baggage-master 
or  porter  of  the  company  stood  leaning  against  the  side  of  the  station, 
chewing  a  straw  and  lazily  observing  me.  There  seemed  bat  one 
short  way  out  of  the  difficulty ;  taking  out  my  purse  and  addressing 
him  in  the  most  persuasive  tones,  I  said  'Do  you  think  you  could  get 
a  truck  and  wheel  that  trunk  down  to  the  train  there  for  me?' — at 
the  same  time  suggestively  fingering  the  purse.  For  an  instant  the 
gentleman  addressed  did  not  move  a  muscle  ;  then,  after  contemplat 
ing  me  to  his  satisfaction,  his  mouth  opened,  he  stopped  chewing 
the  straw,  and  simply  uttered  the  one  expressive  monosyllable, 'No' ; — 
this  done,  he  resumed  the  mastication  of  his  straw,  and  the  conversa 
tion  ceased.  In  that  case  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  the  public  had  wor 
ried  and  annoyed  the  poor  fellow  by  asking  him  all  sorts  of  questions, 
and  calling  on  him,  even  as  I  had,  for  all  sorts  of  services;  but  the 
ingenuity  of  discourtesy  with  which  he  retaliated  was  certainly  de 
serving  of  all  praise,  nor  can  I  doubt  that  before  this,  his  merit  has 
been  recognized,  and  he  has  been  promoted  to  the  office  of  freight 
agent,  or,  perchance,  assistant  superintendent." 

However,  the  railroads  were  not  altogether  responsible  for 
the  hostility  felt  against  them  by  the  farmers.  That  they  could 
please  their  patrons  in  no  particular  only  shows  that  the  ex 
pectations  of  the  latter  were  unreasonable.  It  is  true,  no  doubt, 
that  the  railroad  agents,  in  order  to  induce  the  payment  of  a 
larger  bounty,  painted  in  rosy  colors  the  probable  benefits  which 
the  people  would  derive  from  the  building  of  roads.1  The  peo- 

1  E.  W.  Martin,  History  of  the  Grange  Movement,  pp.  52-53. 

[351] 


20 

pie,  having  magnified  these   suggestions  into   positLY_e__E>rom-_^ 
jses,  were  irritated  bv  their  failm-p.  to  materialize  in  faot.  They 
h^ped  for  too  much  and  complained  when  their  hopes  were  not 
Realized. 

As  the  threats  of  the  farmers  increased,  the  railroad  officers 
gl£vv  obstinate,  until  finally,  the  farmers  had  recourse  to  legis 
lation.  Little  was  done  in  this  direction.  howeyp.r,  before  1 QTO.^ 
The  Illinois  constitution  of  that  year  took  somewhat  advanced 
ground  in  the  matter  of  railroad  legislation.  Some  of  the  pro 
visions  referring  to  railroads  are  as  follows  : 

Article  XI  sec.  1.  uNo  corporation  shall  be  created  by  special 
laws  or  its  charter  extended,  changed  or  amended,  except  those  for 
charitable,  penal,  or  reformatory  purposes  which  are  to  be  and  re 
main  under  the  patronage  and  control  of  the  State,  but  the  General 
Assembly  shall  provide,  by  general  laws,  for  the  organization  of  all 
corporations  hereafter  to  be  created." 

Section  9  of  the  same  article  requires  the  directors  of  every 
railway  corporation  to  make  an  annual  report^  to  the  state,  un 
der  oath.  Other  sections  define  rolling  stock  as  personal  prop 
erty,  limit  the  power  of  consolidation,  require  the  General  As 
sembly  to  "pass  laws  establishing  reasonable  maxim ujn  ra.tea 
of  charges  for  the  transportation  of  passengers  on  the  different 
railroads  in  the  State",  and  provide  against  fictitious  increase  of 
capital  stock.  Section  15  reads  as  follows  : 

"The  General  Assembly  shall  pass  laws  to  correct  abuses  and 
prevent  unjust  discriminations  and  extortion  in  the  rates  of  freight 
and  passenger  tariffs  on  the  different  roads  in  this  State,  and  enforce 
such  laws,  by  adequate  penalties,  to  the  extent,  if  necessary  for  that 
purpose,  of  forfeiture  of  their  property  and  franchise." 

These  constitutional  provisions  opened  the  way  for  positive 
enactment.  As  yet  there  had  been  no  organized  effort  to  secure 
specific  results,  but  such  organization  was  not  long  in  coming. 

In  the  literature  of  the  time  we  find  many  references  to 
the  "Farmers'  Ring"  in  the  Illinois  legislature  of  1871. l  Strictly 
speaking,  this  was  not  a  ring  of  grangers,  for  it  ante-dated  the 

i  E.  g.  Prairie  Farmer,  Feb.  18,  1871. 

[352] 


21 

period  of  granger  organization.  But,  after  all,  it  was  part  and 
parcel  of  the  same  movement,  hastening  the  organization  of 
granges  and  having  much  influence  upon  them,  so  that  a  brief 
notice  of  it  will  help  us  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  Grange. 

On  February  7th,  1871,  sixty-five  members  of  the  legisla 
ture  met  in  the  rooms  of  the  State  Agricultural  Society  "for  the 
purpose  of  organizing  a  farmers'  and  mechanics'  club  to  look 
after  the  interests  of  the  producing  class,  to  subject  all  bills  and 
measures  to  a  thorough  and  free  discussion,  and  by  unanimity 
of  action  to  secure  such  legislation  as  will  relieve  the  necessi 
ties  of  the  mechanical  and  agricultural  interests  of  the  state." 
This  organization  was  usually  spoken  of  by  its  enemies  as  "The 
Farmers'  Club"  or  "The  Farmers  Ring'Veither  as  a  term  of  des 
cription  or  reproach. 

It  was  this  legislature  that  passed  the  famous  restrictive  law1 
of  1871.  Among  these  laws  was  one  approved  by  the  governor, 
April  15,  1871,  entitled  "An  act  to  establish  a  reasonable  maxi 
mum  rate  of  charges  for  the  transportation  of  passengers  on  the 
railroads  of  this  state".2  According  to  this  law  the  railroads  of 
the  state  were  divided  into  four  classes,  according  to  their  gross 
earnings  per  mile.  Maximum  passenger  rates  were  established, 
which  varied  from  two  and  half  cents  a  mile,  in  the  case  of 
those  earning  $10,000,  or  more  per  mile,  to  five  and  a  half  cents 
a  mile  for  those  earning  under  $4,000. 

But  the  best  known  of  these  restrictive  laws  was  intended 
to  prevent  discriminations  in  freight  rates,  and  was  approved 
by  the  governor,  April  7,  1871. 3  Its  provisions  were  complex 
but  may  be  summarized  under  three  heads  :  First,  roads  shall 
not  charge  as  much,  or  more,  for  carrying  gnnrjs  n  1m  dipfinrypp 
than  tor  a  greater  distance.  Second,  the  roads  shall  not  charge 
different  rates  for  handling  and  receiving  at  the  same  or  differ- 
enJjj3O_ini$. Third,  they  shall  not  charge  more  for  transporta- 

1  Prairie  Farmer,  Feb.  18,  1871. 

2  Public  Laws  of  thirty-seventh  General  Assembly,  p.  640. 

3  Ibid.  p.  625. 

[353] 


22 

tion  a  given  distance  on  one  portion  than  for  the  same  distance 
on  another  portion  of  the  road. 

It  was  comparatively  easy  to  secure  the  passage  of  this  act. 
Its  enforcement  was  another  matter.  _At  first  the  railroadlTpaTcf* 
little  or  no  attention  to  it.  There  was  no  method  of  enforce 
ment  except  through  the  courts  on  complaint  of  an  individual 
who  could  show  that  he  had  been  injured  by  the  non-compliance 
of  the  roads.  At  length,  in  order  to  test  the  validity  of  the  law, 
a  suit  known  as  the  McLean  Co.  test  case  was  instituted.1  The 
suit  was  brought  by  the  Railway  and  Warehouse  Commission 
ers  in  the  name  of  the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois  against 
the  Chicago  &  Alton  Railroad  Co.  for  violation  of  the  law  of 
1871,  regarding  discriminations  in  freight  rates.  The  complaint 
declared  that  the  company  was  charging  $5.65  per  thousand  on 
lumber  from  Chicago  to  Lexington,  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  miles,  while  the  rate  from  Chicago  to  Bloomington,  a 
distance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  miles,  was  only  $5.00 
per  thousand.  The  defendant  admitted  these  facts  and  also 
that  its  action  was  contrary  to  the  law  of  1871.  It  held,  how 
ever,  that  the  Bloomington  rate  was  excessively  low  owing  to 
competition  with  the  Illinois  Central ;  that  no  one  was  injured 
by  the  discrimination  except  the  company  itself ;  and  that  such 
discrimination  was  not  illegal,  because  the  Act  of  1871  was  con 
trary  to  both  state  and  national  constitutions. 

The  case  was  heard  in  the  McLean  Co.  circuit  court  by  Judge 
Tipton,  who  gave  a  verdict  against  the  company.  The  grounds 
of  the  decision  were  that  the  state,  in  order  to  give  all  citizens 
equal  protection,  must  insure  them  against  such  discrimina 
tions,  and  that  anything  in  the  charter  of  the  railroad  company 
construed  contrary  to  the  principle  of  equality  must  in  the  very 
nature  of  things  be  void,  for  railroad  companies  have  no  rights 
contrary  to  the  welfare  of  the  people.2  The  case  was  appealed 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  Chief  Justice  Lawrence  presiding,  and 
the  decision  of  the  lower  court  was  reversed.  In  the  words  of 

1  67  in.,  pp.  11-27. 

2  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  R.  R.  &  W.  Commissioners,  pp.  99-114. 

[354] 


23 

the  court,  "Before  this  act  can  be  enforced  it  should  be  so 
amended  as  to  correspond  with  the  requirement  of  the  consti 
tution  by  directing  its  provisions  against  unjust  discrimina 
tions.  It  should  make  the  charging  of  a  greater  compensation 
for  a  less  distance,  merely  prima  facie  evidence  of  unjust  dis 
crimination,  instead  of  conclusive  evidence  as  it  now  is,  and  it 
should  give  the  railway  companies  the  right  of  trial  by  jury, 
not  only  on  the  fact  of  discrimination,  but  upon  the  issue  wheth 
er  such  discrimination  is  just  or  not."  In  other  words,  the  law 
of  1871,  although  entitled  an  "Act  to  prevent  unjust  discrimin 
ations,"  was  so  worded  as  to  include  all  discriminations  and 
was  therefore  contrary  to  the  constitution.1 

The  decision  of  the  higher  court  came  as  a  surprise  to  the 
farmers,  most  of  whom  had  thought  that  the  law  of  1871  had 
settled  once  for  all  the  question  of  railroad  control.  Their  dis 
appointment  was  intense  and  showed  itself  sometimes  in  a  ludi 
crous  manner.  There  had  already  been  much  agitation  through 
out  the  state  for  a  three  cent  mileage  rate  for  passenger  travel.2 
The  farmers  were  convinced  that  this  was  a  sufficient  charge 
and  that  the  railroad  companies  in  charging  more  were  giving 
just  cause  for  complaint.  The  adverse  decision  of  the  court  in 
the  one  instance  led  many  to"  believe  that  legal  opposition  to 
tbe  roads  waslnettective  in  any  case,  slTtEat  they  tpegan  to  take 
matters  into  their  own  hands.  The  more  hot-headed  among  them 
were'  preparedto~~use~~any  means  by  which  their  grievances 
might  be  redressed.  They  agreed  to  offer  their  fare  when  trav 
elling  at  the  rate  of  three  cents  a  mile  and  to  refuse  more.  Es 
pecially  when  travelling  in  groups  to  and  from  conventions 
they  made  themselves  troublesome  to  the  railroad  officials  in 
this  matter.  Sometimes  they  accomplished  their  object  and 
sometimes  they  failed.  Trains  were  often  side-tracked  leaving 
the  farmers  unable  to  proceed.  Sometimes  the  farmers  resorted 
to  violence.  A  story  is  told3  of  a  party  of  farmers  on  their  way 

1  67  111.  pp.  i  £-27.     Quotation  p.  26. 

2  E.  W.  Martin,  History  of  the  Grange  Movement;  Jonathan  Periam,  The  Ground 
Swell ;  Prairie  Farmer  1871,  1872. 

3  Jonathan  Periam,  The  Ground  Swell. 

[3551 


24 

to  a  convention  who,  when  the  train  officials  refused  to  accept 
fares  at  the  three  cent  rate,  and  ordered  a  force  of  employees  to 
put  them  off,  drew  revolvers  and  bowie-knives  and  drove  the 
railroad  men  from  the  train.  It  is  not  stated  whether  the  con 
vention  to  which  these  men  were  going  was  a  meeting  of 
grangers  or  of  some  other  farmers'  organization.  It  makes 
little  difference,  however,  for  the  whole  farmers'  movement 
was  a  unit  in  the  popular  conception  and  can  scarcely  be  an 
alyzed  into  distinct  parts  even  by  careful  study.  So,  whatever 
the  facts  may  have  been,  the_Grange  received  the  blame  for 
such  acts  of  violence  and  the  reputation  of  the  order  wa&  in 
jured. 

TIeanwhile,  opposition  to  the  roads  was  continued  in  the 
legislature.  A  law,  passed  May  2,  1873,1  empowered  the  Rail 
way  and  Warehouse  Commissioners  to  make  a  schedule  of  rea 
sonable  maximum  rates  for  the  transportation  of  passengers, 
freight  and  cars.2  This  law  was  finally  sustained  in  the  courts 
though  bitterly  opposed  by  the  railroads,  and,  as  amended  by 
the  act  of  June  30,  1885,  may  be  found  to-day  on  the  statute 
books.3  The  law  also  provided  that  any  railroad  which  should 
charge,  demand  or  receive  more  than  a  fair  and  reasonable  rate 
of  toll  or  compensation  should  be  deemed  guilty  of  extortion 
and  punished,  and  that  "if  any  such  railroad  corporation  shall 
make  any  unjust  discrimination  in  its  rates  of  charge  of  toll  or 
compensation  for  the  transportation  of  passengers  or  freight  of 

any  description"  etc it  "shall  be  deemed  guilty  of 

having  violated  the  provisions  of  this  act  and  shall  be  dealt 
with",  etc.*  It  was  further  provided  that  all  such  discriminat 
ing  rates,  charges,  collections,  or  receipts,  whether  made  direct 
ly  or  by  means  of  any  rebate,  draw-back,  or  other  shift  or  eva- 

1  Statutes  of  111.,  1873,  p.  135.     Revised   Stautes   of   111.,    1874,  p.  816.  sec.  86-95. 
Report  of  R.  R.  &  W.  Commission,  1873,  pp.  16,2-167. 
8  Sec.  8  of  the  law. 

3  Starr  &  Curtis's   Annotated  111.  Statutes,  Second  Edition  (1896)  v.  3  pp.  3309- 
3316  ;  Revised  Statutes  of  111.  (1895)  pp.  1210-1213,  sections  124:133. 

4  Section  2. 

[356] 


25 

sion  shall  be  deemed  and  taken  against  such  railroad  corpora 
tion  as  prima  facie  evidence  of  unjust  discrimination".1 

The  law  was  the  outgrowth  of  claims  made  by  the  farmers 
of  extortionate  rates  in  both  passenger  and  freight  traffic.  Re 
garding  passenger  rates  they  claimed  that  the  three  cent  rate 
had  formerly  prevailed,  but  that  in  order  to  increase  the  divi 
dends  upon  watered  stock,  the  rate  had  been  gradually  raised 
since  1853  until,  in  1871,  it  averaged  four  and  a  fifth  cents  a 
mile  throughout  the  state.2  On  the  other  hand,  the  railroads 
claimed  that  in  the  state  as  a  whole  the  rates  were  lower  than 
at  any  previous  time.  They  also  claimed  that  further  reduc 
tions  would  involve  a  loss.  The  facts  as  gathered  from  a  late 
publication3  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  show  that  in 
almost  every  case  railroad  rates,  both  freight  and  passenger, 
had  gradually  fallen  from  1850-1870.  A  very  slight  increase  is 
noticeable  in  some  of  the  roads  from  1870  to  1873,  and  a  decid 
ed  decrease  in  the  years  immediately  following.  From  this 
statement  it  may  be  seen  that  both  sides  were  partly  wrong— 
the  farmer,  in  claiming  that  there  had  been  a  continuous  rise; 
and  the  railroad  companies,  in  asserting  that  the  rates  were 
lower  than  ever  before.  One  circumstance  in  this  connection 
should  be  particularly  noted,  since  it  apparently  substantiates 
the  claims  of  those  who  are  antagonizing  the  railroads.  Through 
out  the  era  of  railroad  construction  the  rates  on  newly  built 
lines,  almost  without  exception,  were  higher  than  on  those 
which  had  been  built  for  some  time.  During  the  lull  in  railroad 
building  between  1860  and  1865  the  rates  on  existing  roads,  then 
few  in  number  in  Illinois,  continued  to  fall.  The  construction 
of  new  roads  was  carried  on  rapidly  in  the  next  few  years,  and 
when  they  began  operations  their  rates  were  considerably  high 
er  than  those  of  the  older  roads.  This,  of  course,  temporarily 
raised  the  average  rate  for  the  state.  The  rise  occurred  not 
withstanding  the  steady  decrease  on  the  older  roads  and  an 

1  Section  3. 

*  Prairie  Farmer,  Jan.  25,  1873. 

3  Bulletin  No.  15,  Miscellaneous  Series,  Division  of  Statistics,  Sees.  I  and  6. 

[357] 


26 

almost  immediate  reduction  on  the  new.  In  other  words,  when 
we  remember  that  new  roads  were  rapidly  going  into  operation, 
it  seems  quite  probable  that  the  new  roads,  charging  rates  tem 
porarily  higher,  more  than  counterbalanced  the  decrease  in 
rates  on  the  older  roads,  so  that  the  average  for  the  state  prob 
ably  was  increasing,  as  claimed  by  the  farmer.  Although  the 
building  of  new  roads  was  in  reality  a  benefit  to  the  farmer, 
yet  the  high  rates  charged  on  these  roads,  in  comparison  with 
the  rates  on  the  old  lines,  created  the  impression  that  the  rail 
roads  were  taking  advantage  of  the  situation  to  secure  abnor 
mal  profits  and  thus  gave  plausibility  to  the  arguments  for  fixing 
rates  by  law. 

At  all  events,  l^ow-ever  sound  or  unsound  were  the  argu 
ments  advanced,  the  farmers  werf)  able  to  marshal  sufficient 
strength  to  pass  the  law.  In  this  case,  as  in  the  former  one, 
the  real  test  came  with  the  effort  to  enforce  the  law.  The  roads 
at  first  ignored  thft  1aw  ftptiWh^  They  did  so  publicly  and  even 
boastingly.1  The  matter  was  soon  brought  into  the  courts, 
where  they  were  compelled  to  plead  their  cause.  They  main 
tained  the  illegality  of  the  law  on  the  ground  that  the  railroads 
were  private  corporations,  operating  under  a  charter  received 
from  the  state,  that  it  was  not  within  the  power  of  the  state  to 
pass  laws  annulling  or  restricting  the  charter,2  which,  being  in 
the  nature  of  a  contract  between  the  state  and  the  rail 
road,  was  not  subject  to  alteration  by  either  party  without 
the  consent  of  the  other.  Consequently,  since  their  charters 
made  no  mention  of  state  regulation,  the  railroads  were  not 
bound  to  submit  to  interference,  and  therefore  any  discrimina 
tions  which  they  might  make  were  both  legal  and  justifiable. 
They  held  that  they  had  the  right  to  make  the  best  bargain 
they  could  with  each  customer  and  might,  if  they  saw  fit,  refuse 
a  man's  trade  altogether.3 

1  Stickney,  Railway  Problems,  Letter  of  Alexander  Mitchell  to  Governor  W.  R. 
Taylor,  of  la  ,  pp.  102-109.  Report  of  Senate  Committee  on  Interstate  Commerce, 
serial  number  2356,  p.  64. 

-  Cf.  "Dartmouth  College  Case",  Dartmouth  College  v.  Woodward,  17  U,  S.  pp. 
518-715. 

3  Cf.  arguments  in  "granger  cases."  Also  Stickney,  Railway  Problems,  chs.  X.,  XI. 

[358] 


27 

The  farmers,  on  the  other  hand,  contended  that  the  rail 
roads  as  "common  carriers"  had  no  right  to  refuse  to  haul  a 
man's  goods  at  the  price  paid  by  others.  They  called  attention 
to  the  immense  power  over  business  which  could  be  exercised 
by  the  railroads,  if  allowed  to  discriminate  in  this  way.  They 
also  denied  the  contention  of  the  railroads  as  to  the  power  of 
the  state  to  make  changes  in  the  charter  of  a  corporation,  claim 
ing  that  the  state  had  virtually  created  the  corporation,  which, 
as  the  creation  of  the  state  must  be  subject  to  its  control.1  The 
fight  in  the  courts  was  carried  on  with  a  great  deal  of  bitter 
ness  and  lasted  for  several  years.  The  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  rendered  in  1876upheld  the  arguments  of  the  grangers 
and  asserted  the  rigrHTof  the  states  to  regulate  rates  within 
their  own  boundaries  and  to  compel  the  railroads  to  post  a 
gcliedule  of  their  rates  tor  the  benefit  Of  the  public.  ExU'acTk 
trom  the  various  decisions  follow: 

(A)  Munn  v.  111.  94  U.  S.  134,  extracts  from  syllabus,— 

(1)  "Under  the  powers  inherent  in  every  sovereignty,  a  govern 
ment  may  regulate  the  conduct  of  its  citizens  toward  each  other,  and 
when  necessary  for  the  public  good,  the  manner  in  which  each  shall 
use  his  own  property." 

(6)  "The  limitation   by  legislative   enactment  of   the  rate  of 
charge  for  services  rendered  in  a  public  employment,  or  for  the  use 
of  property  in  which  the  public  has  an  interest,  establishes  no  new 
principle  in  the  law,  but  only  gives  a  new  effect  to  an  old  one." 

(7)  "When  warehouses  are  situated  and  their  business  is  car 
ried  on  exclusively  within  a  state,  she  may,  as  a  matter  of  domestic 
concern,    prescribe  regulations  for  them  notwithstanding  they  are 
used  as  instruments  by  those  engaged  in  an  inter-state,  as  well  as  a 
state,  commerce ;  and,  until  Congress  acts  in  reference  to  these  in 
ter-state  relations,  such  regulations  can  be  enforced  even  though 
they  may  operate  indirectly  upon  commerce  beyond  her  immediate 
jurisdiction."     Decision  rendered  in  October,  1876. 

(B)  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  R.  R.  Co.  v.  Iowa.— Extracts 
from  syllabus : 

(1)     "Railroad  companies  are  carriers  for  hire.     Engaged  in  a 

1  Cf.  Stickney,  Railway  Problem,  chapters  X.  and  XI. 

[2591 


28 

public  employment  affecting  the  public  interest,  they  are,  unless 
protected  by  their  charters,  subject  to  legislative  control  as  to  their 
rates  of  fare  and  freight." 

(4)  "The  act  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Iowa,  en 
titled  'An  act  to  establish  reasonable  maximum  rates  of  charges  for 
transportation  of  freight  and  passengers  on  the  different  roads  of 
this  state',  approved  March  23,  1874  is  not  in  conflict  with  section  4, 
Article  1,  of  the  constitution  of  Iowa,  which  provides  that  all  laws 

of  a  general  nature  shall  have  a  uniform  operation  and,  etc . 

"nor  is  it  a  regulation  of  inter-state  commerce."  Decision  rendered, 
October,  1876. 

(0)     Peck  v.  Chicago  &  Northwestern  K.  R.  Co. 

"Held,  that  the  legislature  had  power  to  prescribe  a  maximum 
of  charges  to  be  made  by  said  company  for  transporting  persons  or 
property  within  the  state,  or  taken  up  outside  the  state  and  brought 
within  it,  or  taken  up  inside  and  carried  without."  Decision  ren 
dered  Oct.  1876. 

(D)  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad  Co.  v.  Ackley. 
The  decision  in  this  case,    also  given  in  October,  1876,  determined 
that  a  railroad  company  can  not  recover  for  any  amount  above  the 
maximum  rate  established  by  law. 

(E)  Winona  &  St.  Peter  R.  R.  Co.  v.  Blake.     Syllabus : 
"The  Winona  &  St.  Peter  Railroad  company,  having  been  incor 
porated  as  a  common  carrier  was  bound  to  carry  when  called  upon  for 
that  purpose  and  to  charge  only  a  reasonable  compensation  therefor.' ' 

(F)  Shields  v.  Ohio,  95  U.  S.  319,  syllabus : 

"The  General  Assemby  does  not,  therefore,  impair  the  obliga 
tion  of  a  contract  by  prescribing  the  rates  for  the  transportation  of 
the  passengers  by  the  new  company,  although  one  of  the  original 
companies  was  prior  to  the  adoption  of  that  constitution,  organized 
under  a  charter  which  imposed  no  limitations  as  to  such  rates." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  similar  legislation  was  in  pro 
gress  in  neighboring  states,  notably  in  Wisconsin,  where  the 
famous  Potter  Law  created  intense  feeling  on  the  part  of  the 
railroads.  Iowa  also  had  similar  troubles.  Illinois  was  proba 
bly  as  successful  as  any  of  her  sister  states  in  dealing  with  this 
problem  and  her  legislation  in  general  was  less  radical.1 

1  Report  of  Senate  Committee,Congressional  Reports,  serial  number  2356  pp.  71-74. 

[360] 


29 

The  railroad  laws  of  the  '70's  are  sometimes  sneeringly 
called  ''Granger  legislation".  It  is  worth  while  to  attempt  to 
discover  what  relation  actually  existed  between  them  and  the 
Grange.  Popular  opinion  on  this  subject  is  at  variance  with 
the  statements  of  grange  officials.1  The  first  so-called  "Granger 
laws"  of  Illinois  were  passed  not  later  than  April  15,  1871.  At 
the  close  of  this  year  there  had  been  but  nine  subordinate  granges 
organized  in  this  state,  and  the  state  organization  itself  was  not 
formed  until  the  fifth  of  March,  1872.  In  the  light  of  these 
facts  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  railway  legislation  of  1871 
can  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  grangers.  This  much,  however, 
is  certain:  an  effort  was  being  made  at  this  time  to  bring  the 
railroads  under  legislative  control  and  the  movement  was  en 
countering  opposition.  The  decjpjor1  ^  the  court,  declaring 
the  law  of  1871  unconstitutional,  came  as  a  shock  to  the  farm 
ers  It  revealed  their  weakness  and  showed  them  that  they 
could  not  make  neadway  unless  tney  could  combine  their  forces.  ^ 
By  this  timetheUrange  nad  attained  some  prominence  and,  be- 
£ause  of  its  complete  organization,  its  discipline,  and  the  limita 
tion  of  its  membership  to  farmers,  had  become  the  center  around 
which  the  farmers  rallied  against  the  railroads.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  previous  policy  of  the  Grange  it  could  no  longer 
remain  neutral.  The  question  was  of  vital  interest  to  the  farjyi- 
ers  and  its  discussion  could  not  be  kept  out  of 


The  Grange  therefore  took  the  lead  in  th^  "war  upon  the  rail- 
i&ads",  and  all  opposed  to  the  roads  were  glad  to  call  themselves 
grangers.  As  one  man  prominent  in  political  matters  of  the 
time  says,  ^  We  were  all  grangers.  I  never  belonged  to  the  or 
der  but  I  was  a  granger  just  the  same". 

We  must  therefore  admit,  that  from  this  time  on,  the 
Grange,  at  least  equally  with  other  farmers'  organizations,  was 
responsible  for  the  opposition  to  the  railroads.  Otherwise  we  must 
find  some  cause  for  its  tremendous  growth  and  activity  at  this 

1  Mr.  Chas.  W.  Pierson  says,  "In  spite  of  the  assertions  of  Mr.  C.  F.  Adams  and 
others  it  can  be  shown  that  the  Grange  was  not  responsible  for  the  Illinois  legislation 
Pop.  Sci.  Mo.  32:206.     Cf.  Hadley,  Railroad  Transportation  130-136. 

C36i] 


30 

time,  distinct  from  those  which  led  to  corresponding  growth  in 
other  farmers'  organizations.  The  evidence  seems  convincing 
that  the  whole  struggle  against  the  railroads,  and  other  corpOc 
rations,  in  the  years  from  1872-77,  may  properly  be  included^ 
under  the  head  of  the  granger  movement^  This  was  certainly 
the^  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the 


The  railroad  laws  of  the  western  states  in  the  early  seven 
ties  were  crude,  as  laws  are  likely  to  be  when  dealing  with  new 
subjects.  In  some  cases  they  were  declared  unconstitutional, 
as  was  the  first  law  in  Illinois.  They  caused  much  harsh  criti 
cism1  in  the  east.  Many  articles  were  written  denouncing  the 
laws  as  virtual  cofiscation,  and  asserting  that  they  were  contrary 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  states  which  passed  them.  It  was 
proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  writers  that  such  states  as 
Illinois  and  Wisconsin  had  seriously  impaired  their  credit,  that 
they  were  retarding  their  own  development  and  that  the  demands 
of  the  farmers  were  most  unreasonable.  It  wras  declared  that  as 
a  result  of  these  laws  railroad  building  in  the  West  had  received 
a  check  from  which  it  would  not  recover.  There  was  a  grain 
of  truth  in  these  statements.  Some  of  the  legislation  was  ill- 
considered,  and  in  so  far  as  it  was  unconstitutional  the  granger 
movement  was  somewhat  discredited.  The  credit  of  the  states 
was  impaired  somewhat2  but  less  on  account  of  the  laws  them 
selves  than  because  of  overdrawn  comments  upon  them.  Rail 
road  building  wTas  checked  temporarily  in  some  sections,  but 
this  was  not  altogether  undesirable.  Moreover  the  length  of 
time  during  which  some  of  these  so-called  "Granger  laws"  have 
remained  in  force  carries  with  it  a  decided  vindication  of  the 
policy. 

The  Railway  and  Warehouse  Commission  has  already  been 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  Grange  in  this  state,  but  de 
serves  separate  treatment  on  account  of  its  importance.  It  was 
created  by  the  act  of  May  13,  1871,  with  power  to  inquire  into 

1  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  32.206,  Nation,  16:381  ;  17:140;  17:266;  19:36;  19:122;  etc. 
J  Nation,  20:33;  C.  F:  Adams  Jr.  in  No.  Am.  Rev.  120:394, 

L362] 


31 

the  management  of  roads,  to  subpoena  witnesses  for  that  pur 
pose,  to  prosecute  parties  for  the  violation  of  laws,  but  with 
little  or  no  discretionary  powers  in  the  regulation  of  the  roads.1 
The  reports  of  the  commissioners  for  1871  and  1872  indicate 
that  they  met  with  many  difficulties  and  were  able  to  exert  but 
little  influence  upon  the  roads.  The  act  of  May  2, 1873 2  extended 
and  enlarged  their  powers.  Section  7  of  that  act  increased 
their  powers  in  .the  prosecution  of  violations  of  the  law,  and 
section  8  empowered  them  to  fix  a  schedule  of  reasonable  maxi 
mum  rates  for  the  transportation  of  passengers,  freight  and 
cars.  These  rates  were  to  be  accepted  in  the  courts  as  prima 
facie  evidence  in  all  cases  of  alleged  unjust  discrimination. 
That  the  farmers  then  considered  this  commission  able  to  en 
force  their  demands  is  evident  from  the  opposition  aroused  by 
Governor  Beveridge  in  1873,  when  he  proposed  as  members  of 
the  commission,  men  who  were  not  considered  representative 
of  the  interests  of  the  farmers.  Public  sentiment  was  so  strong 
against  these  men  that  the  appointments  were  finally  withdrawn 
without  action  by  the  Senate.  The  governor  then  appointed 
three  men  more  satisfactory  to  the  farmers. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  of  the  attitude  of  the  railroads 
that  wrhile  there  is  little  question  that  many  of  the  demands  of 
the  Illinois  grangers  were  decidedly  unreasonable,  and  some 
of  their  methods  forcible  and  illegal,  yet  this  unreasonableness 
was  made  an  excuse  for  opposition  to  many  demands  which 
were  reasonable.  In  the  main,  the  granger  principles  were 
sound  and  the  results  of  the  movement  beneficial ;  for  it  has 
convinced  the  railroad*  corporations  that  railroads.  toTbe_suc'- 
cesstui,  must  be  operated  in  accordance  with  the  demands  of 
tEeir  patrons,  and  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  ^fla 
grant  abuses  affecting  a  large  number  of  people  must  be  rem 
edied. 


1  Public  Laws  of  Illinois,  1871-1872  pp.  619-625. 

2  Report  of  R.  R.  &  W.  Commission  1873,  pp.  62-65. 

[3631 


32 

4.     Political  Features. 

The  original  design  of  the  National  Gy^.ngp  Hid  not  I'mmlm* 
legislative  activity.  r  But,  as  we^have  already  semi,  some  of  f,he 
abuses  which  called  the  organization  into  existence  could  be 
reformed  only  through  legislation.  The  precedent  established 
in  the  case  of  the  railroads  was  soon  extended,  1  and  before  long 
we  find  criticisms  of  the  Grange  for  depending  on  legislation  as 
a  remedy  for  all  evils.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  its  influence  se 
cured  the  passage  of  comparatively  few  enactments.  But 


er  conventions  discussed  many  plans  of  -reform  and,  directly 
or  indirectly,  aided  in  the  passage  of  many  measures  in  the  leg 
islature.  If  we  might  give  the  Grange  credit  for  legislation  in 
accordance  with  its  policy,  passed  since  the  days  of  its  power, 
the  story  might  prove  much  longer.  However,  for  the  present, 
at  any  rate,  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  measures  passed  or 
reforms  agitated  as  a  direct  result  of  granger  influence. 

One  of  the  first  moves  of  the  grangers  in  this  direction  was 
for  the  reduction  of  the  salaries  of  public  offers.  This  mat 
ter  was  discussed  with  warmth  in  meetings  of  both  state  and 
national  granges,  not  only  in  Illinois,  but  also  in  Iowa,  Wiscon 
sin,  Indiana,  and  other  states.  The  discussion  occurred  for  the 
most  part  immediately  after  the  panic  of  1873.  The  term  "sal 
ary  grab"  was  frequently  used  and  there  seemed  to  be  practical 
unanimity  of  opinion  among  grangers  that  the  salaries  of  offi 
cials  were  too  high  and  that  the  offices,  having  become  objects 
of  political  greed,  were  not  filled  by  representative  men,  a  phrase 
which  to  them  meant  farmers.  The  grangers  further  declared 
that  since  all  commodities  had  decreased  in  value,  it  was  mani 
festly  unfair  that  officers  of  the  government  should  not  also  sus 
tain  a  reduction,  and  that  an  increase  in  their  salaries  would  be 
robbery  of  the  people.  The  stand  of  the  grangers  seems  to  have 

1  The  Prairie  Farmer  of  Feb.  8,  1873  urged  activity  in  legislative  matters,  in  the 
following  words:  "The  legislature  is  now  in  session.  Now  is  the  time  for  the  grang 
ers,  of  the  state  to  discuss  needed  legislation  and  to  put  themselves  in  communication 
with  one  or  more  members  of  the  legislature"  so  as  to  know  what  is  being  done  and 
to  exercise  an  influence  on  legislation. 

[364] 


33 

had  some  effect  at  least  in  neutralizing  the  movement  for  higher 
salaries,  especially  in  the  case  of  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  state. 

Other  measures  were  proposed  by  the  farmers,  such  as  laws 
prohibiting  stock  from  running  at  large  :  a  tax  on  dogs  To  in 
demnify  sheep  owners  for  losses  due  to  dogs  :  the  planting"ar7d 
preservation  of  forest  trees  :  the  abolition  of  gambling  ami 
horse-racing  at  fairs :  and  guarding  against  the  importation  of 
contagious  diseases  among  stock.  The  discussion  of  other 
questions  such  as  Prohibition  a.nd  Woma.Ti  Suffrage  jfrnno-ht 
a,bout  numerous  resolutions,  but  these  matters  received  but 
little  sgrions  a  tiffin  tifmr 

The  question  was  frequently  raised  among  grangers,  wheth 
er  or  not  a  member  of  the  Grange  should  seek  office.  The  gen 
eral  opinion  seemed  to  be  that  he  should  seek  representation 
for  the  farmer  and  if  offered  a  nomination  should  not  refuse  it.1 
However,  there  were  numerous  instances  where  grange  offi 
cers  refused  a  party  nomination  because  of  their  position  in  the 
Grange.  On  the  other  hand,  many  must  have  been  quite  willing 
to  accept.  Otherwise  we  would  not  have  had  a  grange  legislature 
in  Wisconsin  in  1875,  nor  36  grangers  in  the  California  legislature 

1  The  Prairie  Farmer  of  January  23,  1875,  contains  a  noteworthy  argument  on 
this  subject.  A  portion  of  it  is  as  follows  : 

"And  vet  farmers  ought  to  fill  important  offices.  Probably  we  shall  have  no  re 
form  in  politics  until  a  majority  of  farmers  shall  be  sent  to  the  legislature  and  to  con 
gress.  But  as  those  now  on  the  stage  of  action  are  unfit,  however  ravenous  they  may 
be,  those  who  shall  be  fit  must  be  prepared,  and  the  only  material  lies  in  the  young 
men  now  entering  life.  The  question  arises,  how  shall  they  be  prepared. 

Take  any  young  man  well  brought  up,  and  containing  within  himself  good  hered 
itary  qualities,  who  is  married  and  somewhat  in  debt  for  land,  teams  and  implements, 
and  who  is  ambitious  ;  it  will  be  a  good  plan  for  him  to  think  of  going  to  the  legis 
lature,  and  being  now,  from  22  to  26,  he  may  reasonably  expect  to  attain  this  object 
by  the  time  he  is  forty  or  fifty,  not  before  ;  on  the  condition  that  he  takes  the  proper 
course  and  pursues  it  steadily.  Many  things  must  occur,  and  there  are  more  things 
in  life  than  most  young  men  imagine." 

The  article  continuing,  gives  more  specific  directions  in  effect  as  follows  :  Be 
honest,  be  temperate  and  keep  good  health.  Cultivate  love  for  your  wife.  Read, 
learn  to  observe,  practice  handwriting.  The  farm  should  not  exceed  forty  acres 
Work  no  more  than  eight  hours  a  day.  Spend  from  three  to  six  hours  a  day  in  read 
ing  or  study.  Travel  as  much  as  possible,  etc. 

[365] 


34 

of  1878.  From  this  we  may  conclude  that  although  some  of 
the  leaders  were  very  careful  to  keep  out  of  politics,  either  be 
cause  the  Giange  was  theoretically  outside  of  the  sphere  of  po 
litical  activity  or  because  the  positions  which  they  already  held 
were  more  influential  than  the  political  offices  within  their 
reach,  yet  many  members  of  the  order  certainly  had  no  such 
scruples  and  probably  counted  on  the  help  of  their  fellow  grang 
ers  to  raise  them  into  office.  ^  Many  grangers  or  grange  repre 
sentatives  occupied  seats  in  the  various  state  legislatures  because 
of  granger  support.Politicians  who  were  not  members  of  the  order 
and  who  were  unable  to  join,  solicited  the  friendship  of  the 
Grange  by  supporting  their  principles  in  words  and  often  in 
The  Grange  also  came  into  politics  sometimes  through 
e  efforts  of  politicians  to  manipulate  granger  conventions. 
The  case  of  Judge  Lawrence  is  in  point.  Acting  in  the  capaci 
ty  of  Chief  Justice  of  the  State  Supreme  Court,  he  pronounced 
the  decision  of  the  court  in  the  McLean  county  test  case,  de 
claring  the  railroad  law  of  1871  unconstitutional.  His  term 
soon  expired  and,  as  he  was  supported  by  nearly  the  whole  bar 
of  the  state,  he  was  renominated  by  his  party  almost  without 
opposition.  The  executive  committee  of  the  State  Grange  had 
previously  publicly  and  explicitly  acknowledged  the  justice  of 
the  decision,1  but  politicians  were  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  the 
farmers  were  not  entirely  satisfied  and  that  a  little  judicious 
scheming  might  stir  up  a  .blaze  of  opposition^/^TTrider  their 
leadership,  or  influence,  grangers'  and  farmers'  conventions  met 

1  The  Prairie  Farmer,  Mar.  22,  1873,  prints  resolutions  adopted  by  the  executive 
committee  of  the  Illinois  State  Grange  after  the  decision  in  the  McLean  Co.  case  : 

"Resolved,  that  the  question  of  railway  tariffs  now  agitating  this  and  other  states 
involves  issues  of  the  gravest  character  and  should  be  settled  on  principles  of  sound 
est  law  and  strictest  justice  to  all  parties  concerned. 

Resolved,  that  the  recent  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  in  the  rail 
way  case  from  McLean  Co.,  so-called,  seems  dictated  by  patriotism  and  wisdom,  and 
so  far  as  we  understand  its  reasonings  and  suggestions,  they  are  accepted  with  satis 
faction  and  approval. 

Resolved,  that  the  present  General  Assembly  are  respectfully  requested  and 
urged  to  enact  a  law  under  which  reasonable  tariffs,  both  freight  and  passenger,  shall 
be  established,  and  by  which  unjust  discriminations  in  the  same  shall  be  prevented." 

[366] 


35 

and  endorsed  the  nomination  of  the  rival  candidate,  who  was 
less  widely  known,  and  who,  though  under  no  pledge,  was  gen 
erally  understood  to  be  a  friend  of  the  farmers  nominated  for  a 
definite  purpose.1  Lawrence  was  defeated  at  the  polls  by  the 
vote  of  the  organized  farmers.  This  and  other  cases  were  plain 
ly  attempts  to  control  the  decision  of  the  courts,  and  were  quick 
ly  interpreted  by  outsiders  as  methods  of  lawlessness  and  an 
archy.  The  granger  movement  was  discredited,  and  the  grange 
weakened,  since  it  was  unable  to  justify  itself  in  the  eyes 
of  those  who  condemned  its  action.  Here  again -the  Grange 
suffered  on  account  of  its  fame.  Because  of  its  prominence  it 
bore  the  brunt  of  the  criticism  though  receiving  only  a  share  of 
the  praise  from  those  in  sympathy  with  its  methods.1  As  we 
look  at  the  matter  now  in  the  light  of  more  dispassionate  criti 
cism,  we  are  bound  to  admit -the  right  of  the  farmer  to  refuse 
to  vote  for  Judge  Lawrence.  But  when  we  reflect  that  his  de 
feat  was  due  to  a  judicial  decision  whose  soundness  was  admitted 
by  the  grangers  themselves  we  can  scarcely  avoid  misgivings 
either  as  to  the  patriotism  or  good  sense  of  the  people  responsi 
ble  for  his  defeat.  But  we  must  not  judge  the  farmers'  organ 
izations  too  harshly,  for  the  members  had  been  keenly  disap 
pointed  at  the  failure  of  the  law  to  which  they  had  looked  for 
relief  from  the  impositions  of  the  railroad  companies. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Grange,  1872  and  1873,  partisan 
newspapers  made  strenuous  efforts  to  induce  it  to  make  an  ex 
pression  of  opinion  on  the  tariff  question.  In  this  they  were 
only  partly  successful.  Nearly  every  time  resolutions  were  in 
troduced  bearing  upon  the  subject,  means  were  found  for  dis 
posing  of  them  without  provoking  discussion.  Not  so  in  a  con 
vention  held  in  Bloomington,  and  controlled  by  politicians.  A 
resolution  was  introduced  calling  for  the  immediate  repeal  of 
the  protective  duties  on  iron,  steel  and  all  other  materials  whiqfi 

1  Prairie  Farmer,  May  31, 1878,  gives  an  account  of  a  convention  held  at  Yates  City 
at  the  call  of  the  Yates  City  Grange  for  the  purpose  of  ratifying  the  nomination  of 
Hon.  A.  M.  Craig  for  Chief  Justice  of  the  state  Supreme  Court.  Resolutions  were 
passed  pledging  the  members  of  the  convention  "individually  and  collectively  to  use 
all  honorable  means  to  secure  the  election  of  the  Hon.  A.  M.  Craig,"  etc. 

[367] 


36 

enter  into  the  construction  of  railroad  cars,  steamships,_etc. 
A  heated  discussion  arose,  at  the  close  of  which  the  resolution 
was  passed  by  a  narrow  margin.  That  night  most  of  the  dele 
gates  went  home  and  an  effort  was  made  the  next  day  to  recon 
sider  the  question.  The  attempt,  however,  failed.  It  was  read 
ily  seen  by  the  grangers  that  such  matters  must  be  let  severely 
alone,  for  much  feeling  was  caused  by  this  action.  Consequently 
we  hear  of  no  more  tariff  discussions  in  grange  conventions. 

In  the  matter  of  currency  reform  there  were  fewer  differ 
ences  of  opinion  t.ha.-p  on  flip  fa.vifF  For  although  there  were, 
no  doubt,  as  many  different  schemes  of  revision  as  there  were 
minds  capable  of  evolving  a  scheme,  the  details  of  these  plans 
were  little  discussed  and  the  grangers  usually  contented  them 
selves  with  a  general  demand  for  currency  revision.1  A  clip 
ping  from  an  Iowa  paper  may  be  taken  as  fairly  representing 
granger  declarations  on  this  subject.  It  is  as  follows  :  "Thei, 
grange  is  the  germ  seed  of  the  great  national  movement  now 
i n  vigorous  progressj}0  g^-"-™*  ?-  n^,innpr1  system  of  QUITCH c y 
that  shall  be  just  to  all  classes  of  citizens,  without  favoijng  by 
special  law  those  who  choose  to  invest,  in  banks  of  issue".' 

Many  other  public  matters  came  upfor  discussion,  and  there^ 
.were  few  important  questions  of  th^  tim^  upon  which  the  Grange 
failed  to  make  some  expressiojL^  For  example  the  popular 
election  of  United  States  Senators  was  often  dismissed  in  grange 
conventions  and  some  efforts  were  made  to  secure  a  more  equit 
able  adjustment  of  taxes.  It  is  none  the  less  true,  as  shown  by 
the  resolutions  of  the  Potomac  Grange  passed  in  1878,"  that 
there  was  a  feeling  somewhat  widespread,  that  aside  from  the 
principle  involved  it  was  a  bad  policy  for  the  Grange  to  express 
itself  on  political  matters,4  inasmuch  as  professional  politicians 

1  The  Prairie  Farmer  of  Feb.  21,  1878  announced  that  the  Illinois  State  Grange 
had  endorsed  the  measures  then  before  Congress  to  remonetize  silver. 

2Copied  in  the  Prairie  Farmer,  Oct.  19,  1878. 

;i  Prairie  Farmer,  Sept.  5,  1878. 

4  In  the  Prairie  Farmer,  January  23,  1875  under  the  heading,  "Is  it  drifting  into 
politics?"  Alonzo  Golder,  Grand  Master  of  the  Illinois  State  Grange,  says  in  effect, — 
It  is  a  conceded  fact  that  the  State  Farmers'  Association  of  Illinois  was  organized 
primarily  for  political  purposes.  In  this  line  no  doubt  it  will  do  good.  But  the  Grange 

[368] 


87 

were  usually  successful  in  framing  such  declarations  to  suit 
their  own  purposes.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  at  the  same 
time  a  feeling  that  the  agitation  against  political  action  by  the 
Grange  was  in  fact  a  scarecrow,  raised  by  the  enemies  of  the 
order  so  as  to  exclude  it  from  politics  and  so  narrow  its  field 
of  influence,1  in  order  to  meet  both  of  these  objections  a  plan  of 
secret  ballot,  similar  in  many  respect  to  the  present  system  of 
primary  elections,  was  adopted  in  some  portions  of  the  state, 
whereby  the  general  sentiment  might  be  discovered  without 
the  interferance  of  politicians,  and  the  members  of  the  Grange 
enabled  to  unite  on  some  candidate  and  so  make  their  votes 
effective.2  The  results  of  this  expedient  were  not  satisfactory 
and  the  plan  was  therefore  abandoned. 

5.     The  Grange  and  the  Middlemen:  Buying,  Selling,  Mutual 

Insurance. 

Aide  from  its  war  on  the  railroads  and  its  activity  along 

n-rg.ngrpj    frmnrl  nf.Kftr    nplHs  of   labor  of  whJCrT 


less  is  generally  known.  Of  these  less  public  activities  perhaps 
none  ha.s  su^om  pi  I'sh^rl  more  lasting  good  than  the  attempt  to 
deal  directly  with  the  manufacturers,  without  the  aid  of  mic^ 
dlemen.  In  speaking  of  the  causes  which  worked  toward  mak 
ing  the  Grange  powerful  as  an  organization,  we  have  already 
mentioned  briefly  the  inconveniences  which  the  farmer  suffered 
at  the  hands  of  the  local  dealers.  In  the  minds  of  the  founders 
of  the  order,  probably  no  item  in  the  farmers'  budget  of  griev 
ances  received  more  attention,  or  was  considered  of  more  real 
importance  to  the  farmer,  than  the  disadvantages  under  which 

must  let  politics  alone.  Politicians  and  the  Associations  would  gladly  drag  the 
Grange  into  politics  but  its  fundamental  principle  is  non-political,  noi.  -partisan. 
Some  subordinate  granges  in  the  state  have  been  led  away  from  their  true  purpose 
and  have  taken  sides  on  political  questions.  Such  granges  must  beware  in  the  future 
or  they  will  be  deprived  of  their  charter.  When  the  Grange  becomes  truly  and 
avowedly  a  secret  political  organization  its  death  knell  is  sounded. 

1  Thomas  M.  Richards  in  address  to  the  State  Farmers'  Association  in  1875  said 
the  scarecrow  "Beware  how  you   meddle  with  politics",  etc.,  is  the  cry  of  political 
schemers  who  fear  the  political  influence  of  the  Grange. 

2  Prairie  Farmer,  Sept.  20,  1873. 

[369] 


38 

,he  was  laboring  in  buying  his  necessary  supplies.     The  middle- 

/  man,  however,  shrewdly  avoided  antagonizing  the  farmer  open- 

l   ly,  and  so  allowed  the  railroads  to  bring  upon  themselves  his 

^first  attack.     Unlike  the  roads,  they  saw  that  their  hold  upon 

the  farmer  depended  on  keeping  him  in  a  good  humor.     Coin- 

petition  compelled  them  to  be  conciliatory  and  they  dared  not 

be  so  overbearing  in  their  manners  as  were  the  railroad  officials. 

Moreover,  their  existence,  in  limited  numbers,  was  necessary, 

or   at  least   helpful,   in   developing  the   resources  of  the  new 

country.     Many  of  theJmmigronts^wftrp  not  supplied  with  Ibp 

was^worse,  they  lacked  the  necessaries  of  .life,  and  .wnujjjjfraye 
been  unable  to  support  themseLY£S.jaiitiL,their  crop^s  werp,  har 
vested  but  for  the  services  of  the  middlemen,  who  furnished 
f.frem  with  goods  on  credit.  ^The  middleman  was  careful  to  em 
phasize  these  facts  in  order  to  impress  upon  the  farmer  a  sense 
of  obligation  for  the  leniency  shown.  The  farmer,  after  receiy- 
i  n^these  favors,  felt  himself  bound  to  trade  with.  the.  man  w,ho 
had  helped  him.  This  was  especially  true  if  his  crops  were  flot 
sufficient  to  pay  his  debt  ;  jor  whether  or  not  his  farm  had  been 
mortgager)  as  security,  his  freedom  of  action  was  none  the  less 
limited. 

A^system_o_f_credit  was  thus  Jbuilt  upr  similar  in  its  raain 
t.o  thp.  system  still   ii^   operation  in  thft  cotton 


statesA    The  chief^difference.  perhapg,  lies  in  the  fa^  ^  a-M.be 

nnrf,V.Qvn   farmpr  ^^JT^^   ^pterpviginfr    a  nrl    />/>]]  ]{\    T)nt  ftndll^ft 

qf  deM  ___  tH.e...  made  use  of  all  such  means  ashe 


graiiger  movement  to  rid  himself  of  such  obligations*  It  is  nev 
ertheless  true  that  the  disadvantages  under  which  many  of 
these  early  settlers  labored  made  the  struggle  for  existence 
severe.  Having  once  put  themselves  into  the  power  of  the 
middlemen  it  was  no  easy  task  to  escape.  And  unless  the 
farmer  adopted  the  motto,  "Pay  as  you  go,"  he  was  sure  to  be 
come  subject  to  the  control  of  the  merchant.  Even  then  the 
prices  that  he  had  to  pay  were  exorbitant  ;  for  there  was  little 

1  M.  B.  Hammond,  The  Cotton  Industry  in  the  United  States,  chap.  V. 

[370] 


39 

competition  in  prices  among  the  merchants,  and  it  was  impos 
sible  for  the  farmer  to  deal  directly  with  the  manufacturer. 
The  leaders  of  the  Grange  movement  saw  these  difficulties 
providf1  against  tfiem  so  far  as  possible, 


the  first,  the  principle  of  cash  payments  was  enunciated,  and 
this  of  itself  marked  a.  distinct  sfep  in  advance  for  the  farmers- 
They  also  tried  the  plan  of  concentrating  thm'r  nrHprs  fnr  fJiP 
purpose  of  getting  more  favorable  terms.  That  the  agitation 
for  co-operation  in  buying  is  as  old  as  the  State  Grange  may  I>e 
seen  from  the  fact  that  at  its  organization  in  18  72  the  question 
of  special  rates  on  agricultural  implements  was  taken  up  ancl 
discuss^djitsomfi  length.1  Individual  granges  in  various  parts 
of  the  state  had  already  made  attempts  in  this  direction.  In 
most  cases  they  attained  a  measure  of  success,  but  owing  to  the 
influence  of  the  middlemen  with  the  manufacturers,  many  ob 
stacles  were  placed  in  the  way  and  the  results  were  not  all 
that  could  be  desired.  When  county  granges  were  organized 
these  matters  passed  into  their  hands  and  were  usually  carried 
on  with  more  success  than  by  the  individual  grange.  County 
agents  were  chosen  who  gave  bond  for  proper  performance  of 
duty,  received  a  fixed  salary,  and  gave  their  time  to  the  work. 
The  National  Grange,  independently  of  these  more  local 
movements,  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  important  concessions 
on  condition  that  the  Grange  orders  should  be  concentrated. 
But  the  national  organization  was  unable  to  carry  out  its  part 
of  the  contract  because  it  lacked  the  power  to  control  the 
orders  of  a  single  grange.  The^  principle  of  direct  dealings 
without  the  aid  of  middlemen  had,  however,  been  established 
and  when  the  state  granges  undertook  the  matter  in  a  bqsi- 

1  A  communication  from  a  granger  who  signs  himself  C.  C.  B.,  appearing  in  the 
Prairie  Farmer  in  May,  1872,  furnishes  additional  evidence  on  the  same  point.  He 
says  that  although  he  entered  the  Grange  with  little  confidence  in  its  plans,  his  dis 
trust  has  been  overcome  by  its  success  in  obtaining  advantageous  rates  for  its  mem 
bers  on  agricultural  implements,  though  working  under  discouraging  circumstances. 
He  states  that  although  the  granges  in  Lee  and  Whiteside  counties  are  for  the  most 
part  less  than  a  year  old,  yet  much  had  already  been  saved  to  the  members  by 
purchasing  implements  for  cash  direct  from  the  manufacturers. 


40 

ness-like  way  they  found  little  difficulty  in  getting  important 
reductions.  Illinois  had  a  state  purchasing  agent  as  early  as 
1875 

The  method  followed  in  making  purchases  through  the 
state  agent  was  well  adapted  to  secure  substantial  advanta^es^ 
Tn  the  first  place,  the  state  agent  was  required  to  give  a  boj^d 
large  enough  to  cover  any  funds  which  he  was  likely  to,  hold  at 
The  executive  committee  had  the  power  of  raising 


this  bond  as  they  deemed  necessary,  in  this  way  the  members 
of  the_Grange  were  secured  against  loss^  The  business  with 
the  dealers  wras  transacted  by  the  state  agent.  The  orders  were 
sent  to  him  as  early  in  the  year  as  possible  by  the  county  or 
district  agents,  whose  business  it  was  to  secure  them  from  the 
secretary  or  agent  of  the  sub-granges.  As  it  was  a  cardinal 
principle  with  the  Grange  that  payment  should  be  made  in 
cash,  stress  was  also  laid  on  this  feature  and  a  discount  of  ten 
per  cent,  allowed  when  cash  was  sent  with  the  order.  Eeceipts 
were  given  for  this  money  by  each  individual  who  handled  it. 
The  company  who  received  the  order  sent  a  receipt  to  the  state 
agent  but  shipped  the  goods  directly  to  the  individual.  Special 
rates  were  obtained  on  car-load  lots.  Large  reductions  were 
secured  by  this  system  and  ample  proof  afforded  that  the  mid 
dlemen  were  either  making  unusual  profits  or  were  conducting 
their  business  in  a  reckless  or  extravagant  manner.  Tn  either 
case  the  farmer  had  suffered  unnecessarily.  Eeapers  for  which 
the  middleman  charged  $275.  were  secured  by  the  grangers  for 
$175.  Threshers  wrere  reduced  from  $300.  to  $200.,  wagons  from 
$150.  to  $90.,  sewing  machines  from  $75.  and  $100.  to  $40.  and  $50., 
and  other  articles  in  like  proportion.1  Tboia  Jpr  a  few  ^gars, 

nf  fhe  Grange  probably^  saved  at  leastJJM  per^cgnt. 

jjases.2  The  middle  men,like  the  railroads,  were 
unwilling  toshare  their  profits  and  tried_to  protect  themselves. 
could  prevent  the  wholesale  firms  from  dealing 

1  Special  Report  2,  Misc  .Ser.  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture 

-  Ibid.     Estimated  at  from  25  per  cent  to  50  per  cent.  Country  Gentleman,  Mar. 
2,  1875,  estimated  at  from  50  percent  1075  per  cent. 

[372] 


41 

with  the  grangers  their  task  was  comparatively  easy,  but  when 
this  failed  they  felt  obliged  to  exterminate  their  new  compet 
itors.  Accordingly  they  brought  down  prices  to  a  point  so  low 
that  many  outside  tne  Uran^e  were  enabled  to  buy  of  their 
local  dealers  at  a  rate  lower  than  that  secured  by  the  grangers. 
They  hoped  to  weaken,  and  perhaps  destroy  the  Grange  that 
tVmy  mifrbt  a.^in  V^IQA  pn'p.pg  Sometimes  they  went  so  far  as 
to  sell  at  a  loss,  and  in  some  cases  were  soon  forced  out  of  bus 
iness. 

In  so  far  as  retail  dealers  were  forced  out  of  business  by 
freer  competition,  the  result  sustained  the  argument  of  the 
grangers  to  the  effect  that  the  middleman  was  a  dead  weight 
upon  society,  adding  nothing  to  the  value  of  the  goods  and  act 
ing  as  a  leech  upon  the  purse  of  the  producer.  But  as  a  matter 
of  fact  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  middlemen  was  by  no 
means  commensurate  with  the  complaints  filed  against  them. 
The  charges  should  be  examined  critically.  Such  statements 
as  those  of  C.  E.  Barney  at  the  State  Farmers'  Association  in 
1875,  need  to  be  taken  with  considerable  allowance.  He  said 
that  in  1873  it  cost  the  workers  in  Illinois  $29,000,000  to  sup 
port  the  professional  middlemen  and  loafers.  Now,  it  is  con- 
ceLVftble  that  the  credit  system  may  havp  been  so  hazardousjfco 
the  dealer  that  thir  nm^rmt  wnr  ^nly  a,  fair  remuneration  for 
the  work  undertaken  l1y  the  middlemen,  or  it  may  be  that  his 
estimate  is  exaggerated^  But  be  this  as  it  mav.  there  canJie 
np  doubt  that  the  grander  movement  was  the  means  of  secur 
ing  a  large  reduction  of  prices,  besides  producing  more  health 
ful  business  Conditions.  ^  More  impprfnnf  tha.n 

however,  was  its  effect  «•«  t-hfi  rntnrinr  rrnrigr  whereby  +-"hfi 

er  of  the  credit  system  was  broken r  and  tVm  fa.rnier  enabled  to 

free  himself  from  its  toils. 


The  venture,  so  successful  in  one  line,  was  soon  extended 
to  others.  It  seemed  to  the  farmer  that  if  agricultural  imple 
ments  could  be  bought  cheaper  bv  ordering-  Hir^n-.  fmn-|  f.T^p 
manufacturer,  groceries,  dry  goods,  and  in  fact  all  of  his  sup 
plies,  could  be  obtained  from  the  wholesale  dealer  with  equal 

[373J 


advantage.  Enterprising  business  men  were  quick  to  take  ad 
vantage  of  this  belief  and  advertised  their  firms  extensively  as 
Grange  supply  houses.  Atthi^time_J[ontgOTiiftry  Ward's  pras-, 
ent  department  store  YJ^LS  startadlis  a  supply  store  for  grangers, 
and  in  its  early  days  its  patrons  were  chiefly  members  of  the 
order.  During  the  first  years  that  the  new  plan  of  purchase 
was  in  operation  the  amount  saved  by  grangers  on  commodi 
ties  of  all  kinds  may  be  fairly  estimated  at  no  less  than  20  per 
cent,  of  the  cost  of  their  purchases  at  previous  prices.1  As,  com 
petition  reduced  prirpst  *n  P  mnrp  stable  scale,  the  average  sav 
ings  through  the  concentration  of  orders  and  direct  dealings  with 
the  wholesale  houses  was  probably  not  above  10%  on  the  retajT 
prices,  though  there  are  many  individual  instances  after  1875 
where  grangers  claim  to  have  saved  20  per  cent,  and  even  30 
per  cent,  in  this  way. 

Asthe  system  became  more  firmly  established,  both^its 
advanTages  and  disadvantages  became  more  evident.  A  saving 
was  still  effected  on  some  goods,  but  on  others  which  could  not 
IK-  ordered  in  large  quantities  there  was  no  gain.  The  need  of 
a  central  depot  of  samples  and  repairs,  and  later  of  a  local  store, 
was  felt.  We  hear  of  many  such  stores  in  1875.  At  Woodstock, 
McHenry  county  a  grange  warehouse  for  agricultural  imple 
ments  was  established.2  In  Tazewell  county  a  grange  store  is 
reported  as  doing  a  business  of  from  $1,500  to  $2,000  a  month." 
Rockford  had  a  sample  grange  store  for  Winnebago  county.4 
The  Shelby  county  grange  established  a  co-operative  store  with 
a  capital  of  $5,000,  divided  into  shares  of  $10  each,5  and  the  Ste- 
phenson  county  grange  incorporated  and  established  a  grange 
store.6  The  Peoria  county  Co-opera tive  Association  was  formed 

1  Cf.  saving  on    agricultural    implements.     The  Prairie  Farmer  of  Mar.  4,  1876 
states  that  the  patrons'  department  store  at  Dixon  had  saved  at  least  50$  to  those  in 
terested  during  the  preceding  year. 

2  Prairie  Farmer,  Mar.  13,  1875. 

3  Ibid.    July  15,  1876. 

4  Ibid.     Jan.  23,  1875. 

5  Ibid.     Mar.  20,  1875. 

c  Ibid.     June  26,  1873;  Mar-  2O'  l878- 

[374] 


43 

with  a  capital  stock  of  $5,000  and  with  200  stock-holders  l  Re 
garding  the  store  thus  established,  an  enthusiastic  supporter 
writes  to  the  effect  that  after  being  in  operation  four  weeks  it 
had  proved  an  unparalled  success,  and  that  a  plan  to  increase 
the  capital  stock  to  $15,000  was  under  consideration.  He  furth 
er  stated  that  the  sales  had  amounted  to  as  much  as  $375  in 
one  day.2 

There  were  various  plans  for  the  management  of  these 
stores,  but  the  one  most  successful,  and  probably  most  common, 
was  similar  to  that  known  in  England  as  the  Kochdale  system. 
The  Grange  was  of  course  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  the 
state,  and  the  necessary  officers  elected  ;  the  amount  of  the  cap 
ital  stock,  usually  $5,000.  was  fixed  and  shares  were  issued.  The 
usual  value  of  these  shares  seems  to  have  been  $10.  At  first 
the  general  manager  was  usually  a  member  of  the  Grange,  but 
later  on  outsiders  were  sometimes  hired  to  take  charge.  Jri^ 
spite^  of  many  successes,  however,  thj3_gr?^gp  sf^rp^  wfTp  a-Q  a 
ruleunprofi  table  in  Illinois,  although  some  prospered  foxjajirms 
and  a  number  are  said  to  be  in  operation  yet.  More  often,  how 
ever,  they  have  suspended  business  entirely  and  for  the  most 
part  now  exist  only  in  the  memory  of  those  living  in  the  seven 
ties. 

Although  the  Grange  was  far  more  successful  in  co-opera- 
tivq  buying  than  in  CQ-operative  selling,  anv  discussion  of  foe 
granger  movement  which  fails  to  give  some  attention  to^  the 
latter  phase  would  certainly  be  incomplete.  Attempts  were 
made  to  get  special  rates  and  to  do  away  with  middlemen's 
profit.  A  granger  firm  of  commission  men  was  established  at 
the  Chicago  stock  yards,  but  soon  failed.3  In  California,  a  gi 
gantic  scheme  of  wheat  exportation  failed  because  of  poor 
management  and  opposition  from  dealers.1  In  Iowa,  especially, 
and  to  some  extent*  in  other  states,  an  attempt  was  made  to  get 


1  Prairie  Farmer,  Dec.  12,  1874. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Ibid. 


[375] 


44 

control  of  the  grain  elevators.  In  that  state  two-thirds  of  the 
grain  elevators  were  said  to  be  in  grange  hands  in  1874. l  In 
some  parts  of  Illinois  the  plan  of  hiring  a  general  shipper  was 
tried.2 

There  were  numerous  cases  in  this  state  where  resolutions 
were  passed  by  county  and  subordinate  granges,  recommending 
that  grangers  "hold  their  hogs"  for  a  certain  length  of  time  or 
for  a  certain  price.  At  its  meeting  in  January,  1878,  the  State 
Grange  recommended  to  its  members  that  they  "hold  their 
hogs"  for  thirty  days  unless  previously  offered  $5  a  hundred  for 
dressed  pork  or  $4.25  for  live  hogs.  Whether  they  gained  their 
point  in  this  particular  case  or  not  is  a  matter  of  little  impor 
tance.  Whateyer  success  they  mav  haj£a— had-  in  indivirfraal 
cases  the  fact  remains  th^t  t.hay  pmilH  nnf  expect  to  fix  prices 
contrary  to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  Unable  to  control 
thf  flpnvr1"^  ?™r|  f^.jlin^  to  limit  the  supply  permanently.  the4r 
efforts  soon  ceased,  though  not  before  charges  of  dislipugsty 

WPVP.  marl  ft  fl.grfl.-JTjfgf.  prp.nprp,    PgQntP  -wtm-kia.nrl1pd  thfi  funds. 

The  co-operative  measures  of  the  Grange,  however,  were 
not  confined  to  the  buying  and  selling  of  goods.  They  also 
attempted  to  apply  the  principle  to  insurance.  There  was  just 
cause  for  dissatisfaction,  in  these  early  days,  with  the  prevail 
ing  methods  of  insurance.  Frauds  were  by  no  means  unusual, 
and  much  difficulty  was  experienced  by  policy  holders  in  mak 
ing  collections  in  case  of  loss.  An  intimation  of  the  feeling 
may  be  found  in  the  statement  in  the  Prairie  Farmer  that  the 
Grange  "has  made  necessary  life  insurance  associations  on  some 
plan  that  will  keep  the  officers  out  of  the  penitentiary  and  the 
patrons  out  of  the  poor-house".  Mutual  companies  for  both 
property  and  life  insurance  were  organized  in  various  localities. 
Property  insurance  was  much  the  more  common.  The  majority 
of  the  companies  were  established  on  the  township  plan,  though 
many  preferred  a  more  extensive  organization,  even  at  the 

1  Popular  Science  monthly  32:371. 

2  Country  Gentleman,  1872,  p.  804,  speaks  of  a  general  shipper  in  Illinois  who  re 
ceived  a  remuneration  of  J^c.  a  bushel  on  grain  handled. 

[376J 


45 

start,  and  as  time  passed  the  larger  companies  grew  in  favor 
and  were  not  always  confined  within  township  or  even  county 
lines.  In  1875  blanks  were  provided  by  the  State  Grange  to 
facilitate  the  organization  of  mutual  fire  insurance  companies, 
and  in  1876  the  Grange  resolved  to  push  the  idea  of  the  Patrons' 
Aid  Society  or  Life  Insurance  for  the  Grange,  so  that  insurance 
might  be  had  at  actual  cost.1  In  this  enterprise  as  in  all  others 
they  met  with  obstacles.  In  Macon  county  a  "traveling  bum 
mer"2  had  succeeded  in  swindling  some  credulous  ones  through 
the  organization  of  "boards  of  life  insurance."  Then,  too,  the 
farmers  lacked  experience,  and  hence  many  companies  were 
poorly  managed.  But  in  spite  of  all  difficulties  the  plan  was 
particularly  successful  even  at  the  time,  and  in  later  years  has 
been  more  fully  developed. 

6.     Fraternal,  Social  and  Educational  Features. 


When   the   GrqngP  Was   first.  nrgQniry.o^fh-t-00  linoa  r>f 

were  emphasized,—  social,  educations.]  a.nd  hnainpsg.  Education 
was  the  sIpp:QTV     THie  evils  to  which 


were  attributed  to  ignorance.  Ij^was  asserted  that  the  railroads 
would  not  impose  on  the  farmer  if  VIP  bar)  p  bptt^T>  Vnrvivio^nrfi_^f 
business  methods,  neither  would  the  middlemen  and  the  politi 
cians  be  able  to  take  advantage  of  him  so  easily  if  he  were  bet 
ter  informed^  .The  farmer's  isolation  kept  him  fvm-n  p.njayincr 
the  benefits  of  social  intercourse,  and  the  social  side  of  his  na- 
ture  needed  development  in  order  to  give  him  confidence  in 
dealing  with  others.  To  assist  in  bringing  about  these  results 
a  program  was  to  be  given  in  every  subordinate  grange  meet 
ing  —  recitations,  songs,  and  discussions  of  various  topics  of  in 
terest  to  the  farmer.  Without  some  opportunity  of  coming 
together  such  as  was  afforded  by  the  Grange,  the  farmer  would 
not  realize  the  meaning  of  current  events.  His  daily  round  of 
toil  discouraged  rather  than  stimulated  efforts  to  keep  well  in- 

1  Prairie  Farmer,  July  15,  1876. 
a  Ibid,  Mar.  i,  1843. 

[377] 


46 

formed,  and  unless  there  was  something  to  spur  him  on  he 
would  not  make  the  necessary  effort.  He  had  been  led  to  be 
lieve  that  education  and  farming  like  oil  and  water,  would  not 
mix  ;  that  it  was  impossible  for  hi_m__to  use  the  educational 
advantages  within  reach  of  others.  .-Ifc^was"  within  thej^ere 
of  _t]ip  Gra.ngp.  to  fpaoh.  flip  fa.rnier  that  all  kinds  of  education 
are  open  to  him,  that  it  is.  worth  his  while  to  make  the  effort 
necessary  to  acquire  information  and  to  learn  how  to  use  it. 
Forjthis  purpose  the  National  Grange  instituted  its  systemxrf 
firnp  rftportsT  publisEed  and  sent  out  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
tracts  among  the  farmers  and  urged  the  need  of  keeping  up 
with  the  times.  For  the  same  purpose  the  State  Grange  sent 
out  deputies  and  IpH-.nvAr.^  vyhn  WPVP  Avpp.(>i,prl  fp  disseminate 
information  on  ^riVnlt-nral  topics  The  subordinate  grange 
paid  the  bills  and  its  members  were  supposed  to  reap  the  bene 
fits.  The  effect  of  these  efforts  was  noticeable.  In  some  cases, 
perhaps  extreme,  though  mentioned  quite  frequently  in  the 
literature  of  the  time,  this  campaign  of  education,  combined 
with  a  freer  social  intercourse,  developed  among  grangers  a 
higher  respect  for  npp  a.nntKpy's  opinions  and  a  more  careful 
attention  to  their  own  personal  a-pp^a-rainC-P,  hojh  in  dress.and 
a,p.tion.x  One  pastor  wrote  of  the  remarkable  change  in  the 
"walk  arid  conversation  of  his  flock",  and  attributed  it  to  the 
organization  of  a  grange  among  them.  Frequently  there  was 
an  increased  demand  for  honfrp  and  oftentimes  grange  libraries 
were  established.  A  grange  was  organized  in  one  community 
where  previously  but  one  newspaper  had  been  taken  and  as  a 
result  the  number  of  subscriptions  soon  increased  to  thirty.1 
Thus  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  the  Grange 
increased  the  desire  for  knowledge  and  aided  in  its  dissemina 
tion.  But  not  only  did  the  farmers  read  more ;  they  also  did 
more  writing  for  the  papers,  either  to  ask  questions  of  their 
own  or  to  reply  to  the  questions  of  others.  In  this  wTay  the 
movement  for  farmers'  institutes  was  greatly  advanced,  per 
haps  originated.  The  ambition  to  write  for  the  papers  was  .still 

1  Special  Report  2  p.  60. 

[378] 


47 

further  stimulated  b}^  some  of  the  agricultural  papers,  which 
offered  prizes  for  the  best  essays  written  by  school  children 
under  a  certain  age,  on  some  specified  subject,  usually  related 
to  the  Grange. 

Fora  few  year^,  whilp  ^ft  "war"  nprm.  the  railroad?  and 

as  a.f,  if.s  hm'-ht      thp.     pf|]y.af.irmQl     rl 


the  order  was  arrested  m-,  ai.  Wst.,  overshadowed.     Rut  as  the 
Grange  frrew  older  a,nd  the  ,so-ra11prl  "^plosion  of  wrath"  iiad 

ts  force,  the  attention   nf    fhp  mpmhprs    hftp.arnp 


and    ITIOre   t,Q   fhft   SOP^I    cinrl    Qrlnr>Qtir>r.Ql    foQfnvQO   cof 

in  its  constitution.  J^already  pointed  out,  its  business  acti  v- 
ity  has  continued  to  the  present,  but  occupies  a  much  smaller 
shareof  its  attention  than  formerly.  It  w  should  not  be  under 
stood.  however,  that  the  Grange  has  entirely  ceased  to  exert 
political  influence  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  term  ;  but  so  far 
as  aggressive  action  along  partisan  lines  is  concerned,  it  may 
fairly  be  said  to  be  out  of  politics. 

In  the  early  seventies,  the  Grange,  like  other  agricultural 
societies,  took  much  interest  in  county  fairs.  About  the  same 
time  picnics  came  into  much  favor.  They  were  planned  with 
as  much  enthusiasm  and  carried  out  with  as  much  energy  as 
Other  granger  undertakings,  but  in  only  two  years,  1872  and 
1873,  did  they  assume  much  importance.  Like  other  projects 
of  the  Grange,  they  failed  to  satisfy  its  members,  many  of  whom 
were  feverishly  seeking  impossible  results  and  hence  were  des 
tined  to  disappointment. 

However,  such  agencies  as  picnics  and  county  fairs  fostered 
the  spirit  of  fraternity  among  the  members  of  the  order.  T  h  i  s 
was  shown  in  the  winter  of  1874-75  when  the  poor  crops  of  the 
preceding  harvest  had  brought  suffering  to  Kansas  and  other 
states  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  grangers  of  Kansas  took^the 
matter  in  h  ap  d  an  d  psta.hl  i  sh  pH  q,  s  y  stern  of  or^an  i  7^d  rpl  i  pf  r 
Members  in  other  states  gave  their  assistance  in  the  work.  Illi 
nois  was  active  in  the  work  and  accomplished  much  in  relief 
of  suffering.  It  is  worth  while  to  note  that  assistance  given  by 
grangers  was  not  limited  to  members  of  the  order  but  was  ex_ 

[379! 


48 

tended  to  any  who  were  in  actual  want.  It  is  true  that  other 
organizations  and  individuals  contributed  toward  relieving  the 
same  needs  ;  but  the  grangers  deserve  credit  for  initiating  the 
movement. 

7.     The  Grange  and  Subsequent  Organizations. 

There  is  little  difficulty  in  tracing  the  relation  between  the 
different  organizations  mentioned  in  this  paper.  They  existed 
about  the  same  time,  were  made  necessary  by  the  same  condi 
tions,  and  were  striving  for  much  the  same  ends.1  There  was 
rriflffli  rivalry  among  ±hjeiLU,amountipg.  in  the  case  of  clubs  ain  d 
granges,  almost  to  open  hostility,!  There  seems  to  be  aeon  - 

f,he  movement  toward  organization  at 


this  time  and  the  movements  which  have  occurred  among 
far  m  ers  since  t  h  ak  ti  nm.  There  is  difficulty  in  determining 
howjnuch  the  later  movements  were  affected  by  the  ejirlier 
ones,  but  a  careful  analysis  brings  out  many  points  of  similari  ty  . 
In  the  me  mEershi  p  of  the  grange  it  is  easy  to  recognize  two  gen- 
eraldasses,  the  conservative  and  the  radical  The  conserva- 
t.JKJfi  element,  relatively  smaller  in  number,  comprised  many  of 
thejiiost  progressive  farmers  of  the  country,  ,  It  might  perhaps. 
be  said  to  represent  fairly  the  best  element  among  the  farming 
population,  who  after  thoughtful  consideration  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  much  might  be  gained  through  organiza 
tion,  and  for  that  reason  had  joined  the  order.  Tjie  radical 
wing  was  made  up  from  the  chronically  dissatisfied  element 
among  the  farming  classes^  Their  ideas  regarding  reforms 
were  more  or  less  hazy  and  they  were  ready  to  cast  in  their  lot 
with  any  new  movement  which  created  a  stir.  It  was  their 
function  to  call  attention  to  existing  evils  rather  than  to  re 
form  them,  for  they  were  incapable  of  following  one  idea  con- 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  as  early  as  1874  an  organization  known  as  Sover 
eigns  of  Industry  had  been  formed  among  mechanics  and  laborers,  especially  in  the 
New  England  states,  upon  a  plan  very  similar  to,  and  probably  copied  from,  the  Pa 
trons  of  Husbandry. 

8  See  report  of  Secretary  S.  M.  Smith  at  the  State  Farmers'  Association,  1873. 


49 

sistently  for  any  length  of  time.  Thus  after  a  few  years  of  ac 
tivity  in  the  grange  they  became  discontented.  The  ideal  state 
of  their  imagination  was  not  immediately  reached.  They  de 
serted  tiie  grange!  Utner  organizations,  such  as  the 
Alliance  and  the  Farmers'  Mutual  Benefit 


into  prominence  and  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  radicals^  But 
just  as  before,  the  radical,  discontented 


Had  there  been  the  same  need  in  the  country,  these 
organizations  might  have  made  themselves  felt  as  strongly  as 
did  the  Grange  in  its  palmiest  days.  Without  discussing  the 
actual  accomplishments  of  these  organizations  it  will  be  suffi 
cient  to  note  that  their  influence  is  now  an  unimportant  factor. 
They,  too,  failed  to  realize  the  ideals  of  many  of  their  partisans, 
and  their  membership  decreased.  The  Populist  movement  also, 

though  tQO    recent    t(>    ft^Tnif    of    rmV>ia«Pri    rHgrmssimij    fifif.Tflg  to 

bear  a  close  resemblance   to  the  Grange   in  many  features  es 
pecially  in  its  anti-monopolistic  sentiments. 

8.     Estimate  of   The  Grange. 

Much  has  already  been  said  regarding  the  differences  in 
the  character  and  policy  of  the  Grange  at  different  periods  of 
its  history.  Irijjie  seventies  it  had  a  mushroom  growth,  and 
wras  characterized  by  a  feverish  activity  in  supporting  princi- 
ples  somewhat  vague,  but  in  general  seeking  reform  through 
legislation,.  This  period  was  followed  by  a  reaction  and  a_strik- 
ing  decrease  in  membership.  Since  1880  there  has  been  &  re- 
vivalr  and  the  Grange,  w7ith  a  gradually  increasing  membership 
ha,s  frften  able  .to  pnrsrm  a,  wpjTMftfmfid  pnlipy,  pTflpfr  a  sizing  fVm 
need  of  Education  and  the  necessity  for  self  -improvement.  The 
granger  movement  has  been  frequently  misunderstood,  and  it 
is  difficult  even  yet  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  it.  It  is  true 
that  many  actions  of  the  Grange  will  not  bear  a  close  scrutiny. 
Some  of^  the  first  laws  passed  during  their  period  of  greatest 
legislative  inflnnnca.  were  unjust  to  other  classes.  But  on  the 
h?ynf|  they  accomplished  much  good.  The  objectionable 

[381] 


50 

features  of  the  laws  were  soon  removed  and  the  advantages 
made  permanent.  Trip,  Attention  of  the  people  was  called  to 
railroad  abuses  and  their  ingenuity  directed  toward  the  dis^ov- 
e££  of  a  remedy.  TJie  state  railway  commissions  established 
i n  some  of  the  states  by  the  grangers  paved  the  way  for  th e 
Inter-State  Coivnnercp,  Commission.  Aside  from  all  this  the 
political  influence  of  the  farmer  has  iiTmroved  in  almost,  every 
particular  since  the  organization  of  the  (Iran gft.  It  is  impossi- 
b  leto  determine  just  how  mp^h  of  fin's  improvement  is  due  j^o 
the  Grange,  but  it  would  be  rnarnfestlv  unfair  t,o  sa,  v  th  a  t  improve 
ment  would  have  come  wjtill^11^  +^A  a.irl  rrf  the  (Grange  and  that 
the  granger  movement  ha.,rl  nr>  rpa1  valnp  Indeed,  when  we 
recall  its  many  lines  of  activity,  its  energy,  its  determination , 
itsTpower  of  concentratioi^itsent.hnsiasiyi^  the  ability  of  its  lead 
ers,  and  its  widespread  prga.-m'yai.inn,  there  need  be  no  hesita 
tion  in  affirming  that  no  sina.11  sharp,  of  thp  political.  sociaTand 
industrial  progresspf  the  farmer  in  Illinois  may  be  traced  to 


[382] 


51 


LIST  OF  REFERENCES 

I.     Primary  Sources 

List  of  subordinate  granges  in  the  state  of  Illinois  after  March  15,  1874. 

Constitution  and  by-laws  of  the  Sangamon  county'council. 

Constitution  of  Illinois  State  Grange. 

Constitution  of  the  National  Grange. 

Proceedings  of  the  Illinois  Farmers'  convention,  Bloomington,  Illinois,  January 
15  and  16,  1873. 

Proceedings  of  the  annual  meetings  of  the  Illinois  state  Farmers'  Association  1873, 
1874,  1875. 

Journal  of  proceedings  of  the  Illinois  State  Grange  1875,  1878,  1879,  1898,  1899. 

Journal  of  proceedings  of  the  National  Grange  1897,  1898,  1899. 

Transactions  of  the  Illinois  Department  of  Agriculture,  1872.  (Reports  for  other 
years  and  from  other  states  bear  on  subject  indirectly) 

Reports  of  Illinois  R.  R.  &  W.  Commissioners  1872-1877. 

Report  of  committee  on  inter-state  commerce,  49th  Congress,  1st  session — serial 
numbers  2356  and  2357. 

Constitution  of  Illinois  (1870) 

Statutes  of  Illinois,  1873. 

Public  laws  of  Illinois  1871,  1872. 

Revised  statutes  of  Illinois  1874. 

Revised  statutes  of  Illinois  1 895. 

67  111.  Reports. 

94  U.  S.  Reports. 

Starr  &  Curtis'  Annotated  Statutes  of  Illinois. 

Bulletin  No.  16,  Miscellaneous  series,  Division  of  Statistics,  U.  S.  Department  of 
Agriculture — changes  in  the  rate  of  charge  for  railway  and  other  transportation  services. 

Special  report  2,  Miscellaneous  series,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture — Proceed 
ings  of  a  convention  of  agriculturalists  held  at  the  department  of  Agriculture,  January 
23-29,  1883. 

Country  Gentleman  1869-1875. 

Michigan  Farmer  1873. 

Western  Rural,  1869. 

Prairie  Farmer,  1869-1878. 

II.     Secondary  Sources. 

ADAMS,  EDWARD  F. 

"  The  Granger  Morality,"   Nation  19:234. 
"The  Modern  Farmer." 

[383] 


52 

ADAMS,  C.  F.  JR. 

"Railroads  ;  Their  Origin  and  Problems. 

"The  Granger  Movement,"  No.  Am.  Rev.,  120:394-424. 
ALEXANDER,  E.  PORTER. 

' '  Raihva  y  Practice. ' ' 
ALTGELD,  JOHN  P. 

"Live  Questions." 
ATKINSON,  EDWARD. 

"Margin  of  Profits  and  Distribution  of  Products." 

"The  Railroad  and  the  Farmer." 
BAKER, 

"Monopoly." 
CLOUD,  D.  C. 

"Monopolies  and  the  People." 
COOK,  W.  W. 

"Corporation  Problems." 
DABNEY,  W.  D. 

"The  Public  Regulation  of  Railways." 
DIXON,  F.  H. 

"State  Railroad  Control,  with  a  History  of  Its  Development  in  Iowa." 

"Railroad  Control  in  Nebraska,"  Pol.  Sci.  Quar.,  13:017-047. 
ELY,  RICHARD  T, 

"The  Labor  Movement  in  America." 
GROSVENOR,  W.  M. 

"Monopolies"   (Letter  with  additional  comment. )     Nation,  18:393. 
HADLEY,  A.  T. 

"Railroad  Transportation  ;  Ite  History  audits  Laws." 
HAMMOND,  M.  B. 

"The  Cotton  Industry  in  the  United  States." 
HOLE,  JAMES. 

"National  Railways." 
HUDSON,  J.  F. 

"The  Railroads  and  the  Republic." 
JEANS,  J.  S. 

"Railroad  Problems." 
LARRABEE,  WM. 

"The  Railroad  Question." 
LLOYD,  HENRY'  D. 

"Wealth  Against  Commonwealth." 
MARTIN,  E.  W. 

"History  of  the  Granger  Movement." 
PERIAM,  JONATHAN. 

"The  Ground  Swell." 
PIERSON,  CHAS.  W. 

"Rise  of  the  Granger  Movement,"  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  32:199. 

"Outcome  of  the  Granger  Movement,"  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  32:308. 

[384] 


58 

WELLS,  D.  A. 

"How  Will    the  United  States  Supreme  Court  Decide  the  Granger  Railroad 

Cases?"     Nation,  19:382. 

Nation    16:249,   "Farmers'  Clubs  and  the  Railroads." 
829,   "The  Latest  Reform  Movement." 
381,   "The  Causes  of  the  Farmers'  Discontent." 
17:  36,   "The  Latest  Device  for  fixing  Rates  of  Transportation." 
68,   "Another  Aspect  of  the  Farmers'  Movement." 
140,   "Agricultural  Exposition  of  Corporate  Law." 
156,   "The  Next  Descent  Upon  The  Treasury." 
237,   "The  Watered  Stock  Hallucination." 
285,   "The  Railway  Mystery." 
18:  55,   "The  Farmers'  Future." 

294,   "The  Cheap  Transportation  Report." 
19:  36.   "The  Granger  Method  of  Reform." 

121,   "The  Wisconsin  Method  of  Railroad  Reform." 
199,   "The  Right  to  Confiscate." 
231,   "Potter  and  His  Law." 
21:189,   "The  Last  Railroad  Grievance." 
22:  57,   "The Granger  Collapse." 
24:143,   "The  Granger  Decisions." 
27:  37,   "The  Granger  Theory  Applied  to  Grangers." 
International  Review,  3:50,   "Retrospective  Legislation  and   Grangerism." 


[385] 


®ntoersitj>  of  f  lltnois 


Vol.  I  MARCH  15,    1905  No.  9 


The  Illinois  Constitutional  Convention  of  1862 

By 
O.  M.  DICKERSON,  A.  M. 


PRICE    50    CENTS 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Calling  of  the  Convention. 

II.  The  Proceedings  of  the  Convention  and  the 

Defeat  of  the  Constitution. 

III.  The  Rejected  Constitution. 

IV.  Discussions  in  the  Convention  Regarding  the 

Nature  of  its  Authority. 

V.  Partisanship  in  the  Convention. 

VI.  The  Charge  of  Disloyalty. 

VII.  List  of  Authorities. 


T. 
THE  CALLING  OF  THE  CONVENTION 

The  constitution  of  1848  was  defective  in  many  particulars, 
but  the  worst  defects  in  its  practical  workings  may  be  grouped 
under  these  heads:  1st,  it  allowed  private  and  special  legisla 
tion;  2nd,  it  fixed  the  salaries  of  state  officers  at  too  low  an 
amount;  3rd,  the  judicial  system  was  inadequate. 

The  framers  of  the  constitution  of  1848  thought  they  had 
provided  against  the  worst  evils  of  special  legislation.  When 
the  constitution  was  put  into  operation,  however,  it  was  found 
that  the  restrictions  really  did  not  restrict.  The  evil  continued 
to  grow,  and  even  by  1860  had  reached  enormous  proportions. 
Bills  were  read  by  title  only  and  often  they  did  not  contain  ex 
actly  what  their  titles  indicated.  If  one  considers  only  the 
bills  that  were  passed,  their  number  is  so  great  that  it  is  hardly 
conceivable  that  members  of  the  legislature  really  knew  what 
laws  they  were  enacting.  Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  evil 
is  gained  from  a  consideration  of  the  amount  of  space  required 
to  print  the  laws.  In  1857  and  in  1859  the  public  and  private 
laws  were  bound  together,  requiring  each  year  a  volume  of  1450 
pages.  After  1859  the  two  classes  of  laws  were  bound  sepa 
rately  and  the  figures  tell  the  story. 

Private  laws  Public  laws 

186! 750  pages  288  pages 

1863— the  legislature  was  prorogued  by  Governor  Yates. .  .     278     "  83 

1865 1528     "  137 

1867 2523     "  196 

i869 3435     «  442 

1873 — under  the  new  constitution -  160 

Because  of  the  demands  upon  the  time  of  the  legislature 
for  the  consideration  of  these  private  bills,  many  of  which  were 
of  the  most  trivial  character,  laws  of  a  public  nature  were  de 
layed,  poorly  considered,  or  never  passed. 

The  salaries  of  the  state  officers  were  fixed  so  low  that  they 

(387) 


were  not  at  all  adequate  to  meet  the  necessary  expenses  of  a 
man  living  in  a  city  during  the  comparatively  high  prices  of 
the  fifties.  These  salaries  were:  Governor,  $1,500;  Secretary 
of  State,  $800;  Treasurer,  $800;  Auditor,  $1,000.  These  sums 
appear  ridiculously  small  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
work  to  be  done,  the  talent  demanded,  and  the  cost  of  conduct 
ing  a  campaign. 

The  decade  from  1850  to  1860  was  one  of  unexampled  de 
velopment  in  the  state.  Population  increased  from  851,470  to 
1,711,957,  an  increase  of  more  than  a  hundred  per  cent.1  This 
enormous  growbh  in  population,  however,  had  not  been  evenly 
distributed.  The  northern  half  of  the  state  had  grown  more, 
proportionately,  than  had  the  southern.  Thus,  the  fifteen 
northern  counties  had,  in  the  same  decade,  increased  in  popu 
lation  from  170,938  to  408,264.  The  framers  of  the  old  consti 
tution  had  formulated  a  system  to  meet  the  demands  of  indus 
try  and  population  as  they  exisbed  in  1847.  With  increasing 
population  and  rapid  industrial  development,  new  constitution 
al  provisions  became  a  necessity.  Mr.  Elliott  Anthony  sums  up 
the  situation  as  follows:  "As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  state  in 
creased  in  population  so  fast,  and  the  development  of  the  vari- 
ious  complicated  interests  was  so  rapid,  and  there  were  so  many 
things  that  came  to  pass  that  nobody  anticipated  or  thought  of, 
that  the  constitution  became  almost  obsolete.  The  people  had 
outgrown  it,  and  it  was  so  defective  in  so  many  particulars  that 
a  new  constitutional  convention  became  imperative."5 

On  February  3,  1859,  the  legislature  provided  by  joint  reso- 
tion  that  the  voters  at  the  regular  election  in  1860  should  vote 
for  or  against  calling  a  constitutional  convention.3  The  result 
of  the  popular  vote  was  decidedly  in  favor  of  calling  the  con 
vention,  the  northern  section  of  the  state  returning  the  largest 
majorities.  In  accordance  with  this  expression  of  opinion,  bills 
were  introduced  in  both  houses  of  the  legislature.  In  the 

1  U.  S.  Census  for  1850  and  1860 

2  Anthony,  Constitutional  History  of  Illinois,  p.  106. 

3  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  1859,  p.  386. 

(388) 


House  a  bill  providing  for  a  convention  to  make  a  new  consti 
tution  was  introduced,  January  10,  1861. l  After  some  discus 
sion,  this  bill  was  referred  to  the  committee  on  judiciary, 
which,  on  January  29,  reported  the  bill  back  with  the  recom 
mendation  that  it  be  not  passed.2  In  the  meantime  the  Senate 
had  passed  a  bill  providing  for  a  convention  to  "amend  the 
constitution".  The  House  took  up  this  Senate  bill  and  passed 
it  on  January  22  by  a  vote  of  71  to  O.3  The  act  calling  the  con 
vention  was  finally  approved  on  January  31,  1861. 

This  act  provided  that  delegates  should  be  elected  in  the 
fall  of  1861  from  the  same  districts  and  in  the  same  manner  as 
members  of  the  lower  house  of  the  legislature.  An  appropria 
tion  was  made  to  meet  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  conven 
tion  and  the  rate  of  pay  for  the  delegates  was  fixed.  The  bill 
also  specified  the  time  and  place  for  the  meeting  of  the  conven 
tion  and  provided  that  the  results  of  its  labors  should  be  sub 
mitted  to  the  people  for  their  approval.4 

Before  the  delegates  could  be  elected,  however,  the  storm' 
of  civil  war  burst  upon  the  country,  and  party  issues  were  for-' 
gotten.  The  southern  half  of  the  state  was  overwhelmingly 
Democratic  and  intensely  opposed  to  abolition.  The  opinion 
of  this  Democratic  majority  appears  to  have  been  that  slavery 
was  a  legitimate  institution  in  the  South  and  as  such  entitled 
to  protection.  Yet  they  were  not  willing  that  negroes  should  en 
ter  Illinois,  and  few  probably  favored  any  measure  that  would 
introduce  slavery  into  a  free  territory,  unless  the  people  of  such 
a  territory  were  in  favor  of  its  introduction.  Although  they 
would  not  support  any  measure  looking  toward  the  interference 
with  slavery  where  it  already  existed,  and  even  looked  with 
favor  upon  slavery  as  an  institution,  yet  the  great  majority 
would  not  support  the  pro-slavery  men  in  their  attempts  to  de 
stroy  the  Union.  In  1861,  they  were  disposed  to  support  heart- 

1  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  1861,  p.  38. 

2  Ibid.  p.  144. 

3  Ibid.  p.  187. 

4  Public  laws  passed  by  the  22nd  General  Assembly,  p.  84. 

(389) 


6 

ily  a  war  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union;  although,had  they 
realized  that  the  logical  and  inevitable  result  of  such  a  war 
would  be  the  destruction  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  they 
might  not  have  supported  the  war  policy. 

Undoubtedly  opposition  to  the  war  was  developing  during 
the  latter  part  of  1861  and  the  early  part  of  1862,  though  there 
are  but  slight  indications  of  it  in  the  election  held  in  Novem 
ber,  1861,  for  the  choice  of  delegates  to  the  constitutional  con 
vention.  It  appears,  however,  that  some  Democrats  consid 
ered  the  convention  a  convenient  means  of  reorganizing  the 
party  on  state  issues  and  thus  keeping  it  alive  until  the  war 
was  over.  No  doubt  the  opinion  expressed  editorially  by  the 
Urbana  Weekly  Democrat  in  its  issue  of  August  24.  1861,  was 
held  by  other  Democrats  in  the  state.  The  opinion  is  as  fol 
lows: 

"The  Democrats  of  Champaign  County  should  wake  up  to  the 
importance  of  selecting  delegates  to  this  convention,  and  should 
proclaim  in  tones  that  cannot  be  misunderstood  that  they  are  in 
earnest  upon  the  matters  absorbing  state  casualties  at  this  particular 
time.  We  have  a  right  to  such  vigor  and  prudence  in  the  action  of 
the  Convention  as  should  characterize  the  Democracy  as  independent 
in  the  fall  election.  The  whip  and  spur  of  extreme  abolition  sentiment 
and  the  efforts  made  to  give  the  war  a  partisan  character  should 
teach  us  the  advantages  of  sound  legislation  for  the  prosperity  of 
Illinois.  Unless  we  revive  our  party  on  issues  as  far  as  regards 
state  and  local  elections  and  demand  our  rights  in  the  state,  it  may 
be  expected  that  we  will  have  to  witness  in  silence  the  over 
throw  *  *  *  of  Democratic  principles.  *****  This 
question  is  one  of  great  magnitude,  and  the  Democrats  of  the  whole 
state  should  not  be  caught  napping  *****  for  the  issues 
are  to  them  of  great  local  importance.  Discuss  them  now  in  your 
towns  and  precints,  that  all  may  vote  understandingly,  and  not  be 
led  into  pleasing  eccentricities  by  the  opposite  party." 

On  August  31,  this  same  paper  commented  editorially  upon 
needed  amendments  to  the  constitution,  and  appealed  to  the 
Democrats  to  maintain  their  party  on  local  and  state  issues.  Not- 

(300) 


withstanding  the  attitude  of  this  paper  the  evidence  as  a  whole 
indicates  that  in  the  state  generally,  very  little  interest  was 
taken  in  the  election.  J.  C.  Allen,  of  Olney,  says  that  in  his 
district  there  was  practically  no  opposition  and  that  the  vote 
was  very  light.  Even  as  late  as  October  16,  the  Chicago  Times 
says:  "The  rebellion  absorbs  all  attention  and  even  now,  when 
we  are  only  a  few  days  from  the  election  of  delegates  there  is 
literally  no  discussion  of  the  great  questions  which  will  rise 
before  the  Convention."  On  the  day  before  the  election  the 
State  Journal  printed  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Union  Con 
vention  at  Springfield  and  gave  the  names  of  the  candidates, 
Shelby  M.  Cullom  and  Peter  Cartwright.  It  declared  that  the 
rival  candidates  were  nominated  by  a  strictly  partisan  Demo 
cratic  convention,  but  did  not  particularly  urge  the  election  of 
the  Union  delegates.  The  Republican  papers  of  Chicago,  Bloom- 
ington  and  Champaign  also  allowed  the  election  to  pass  with 
but  slight  notice.  In  some  Democratic  districts,  as  at  Spring 
field,  the  party  made  a  party  fight  and  elected  its  delegates.  In 
other  districts,  as  at  Chicago,  "Union"  delegates  were  put  up 
and  supported  by  both  parties.  Many  of  these  so-called  "Un 
ion"  delegates  afterward  turned  out  to  be  Democrats.  In  some 
districts,  however,  delegates  were  elected  definitely  as  Repub 
licans. 

The  election  was  very  quiet  and  the  total  vote  was  small. 
In  Champaign  county,  which  was  normally  Republican,  T.  R. 
Webber,  the  Democratic  nominee,  received  a  majority.  Only 
about  half  as  many  votes  were  polled  as  in  1860.  The  follow 
ing  quotation  probably  described  accurately  conditions  and 
sentiment  throughout  the  state:  "The  annual  election  came 
off  Tuesday  last;  after  years  of  most  intense  political  excite 
ment,  it  seems  strange  to  see  old  party  lines  entirely  blotted 
out  and  the  people  casting  about,  making  choice  of  the  best 
and  most  deserving  without  respect  to  former  political  organi 
zation.  This  is  as  it  should  be  and  any  person  attempting  to 
foster  and  keep  alive  old  party  feuds,  is  doing  more  for  the 

(391) 


8 

rebel  influence  than  he  is  for  this  government  under  which  he 
lives."1 

Partly,  perhaps,  through  intrigues  on  the  part  of  the  Dem 
ocratic  leaders,  or  through  negligence  on  the  part  of  the 
Republicans,  but  most  probably  because  the  prominent  lawyers 
were  Democrats  and  the  great  mass  of  voters  were  for  the  time 
indifferent,  the  Democrats  secured  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  delegates.  According  to  the  list  of  delegates  published 
in  the  Chicago  Tribune2  there  were  45  Democrats,  20  Republic 
ans  and  10  Union  Democrats.  In  the  list  were  some  of  the 
ablest  lawyers  of  the  state  and  the  delegates  as  a  body  should 
have  inspired  confidence. 

Among  the  leaders  of  the  Democrats,  James  W.  Singleton 
and  Anthony  Thornton  had  been  members  of  the  Constitution 
al  Convention  of  1847.  The  latter,  especially,  was  an  able  law 
yer.  He  had  come  to  this  state  from  Kentucky  and  was  a  gradu 
ate  of  Miami  University.  He  had  been  a  follower  of  Clay,but  on 
the  death  of  that  statesman  became  a  Democrat.  When  the  war 
broke  out  he  remained  loyal  to  the  Union  and  was  one  of  the 
most  conservative  members  of  the  convention.  The  corre 
spondent  of  the  Chicago  Journal  says  of  him:  ''He  is  conceded 
to  be  one  of  the  ablest  members  of  the  Convention.  When  he 
rises  to  address  the  house,  which  is  not  often,  he  is  listened  to 
with  profound  respect.  Members  know  they  will  hear  ideas  in 
stead  of  words,  and  his  opinions  are  regarded  with  the  greatest 
deference."3 

W.  J.  Allen  was  conspicuous  in  Southern  Illinois  politics 
and  was  a  radical  Democrat.  As  chairman  of  the  committee 
on  the  Bill  of  Rights  he  occupied  a  prominent  place  in  the  con 
vention  proceedings.  Other  radical  leaders  were  H.  K.  S. 
Omelveney  and  S.  A.  Buckmaster.  Among  the  conservatives 
should  be  mentioned  Alexander  Starne,  Judge  Purple  of  Peoria, 

1  Urbana  Democrat,  Nov.  6,  1861. 

2  Chicago  Tribune,  Jan.  7,  1862. 

s  Chicago  Evening  Journal,  Jan.  20,  1862. 

(392) 


9 

and  Melville  W.  Fuller  of  Chicago,  a  young  man  whose  legal 
ability  was  even  then  clearly  recognized. 

The  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  Journal  placed  E.  S. 
Terry  as  the  foremost  of  the  Eepublicans,  on  account  of  his 
.age,  his  good  judgment,  and  the  respect  with  which  his  opin 
ions  were  considered.  Joslyn  was  another  prominent  member. 
A  preacher,  an  abolitionist,  and  a  radical  Republican,  he  was  a 
ready  speaker  and  prominent  in  debate.  Elliott  Anthony  of 
Chicago  was  in  no  sense  a  politician  but  was  a  lawyer  of  con 
siderable  prominence  and  a  man  of  real  ability.  The  best 
known  Republican  member,  however,  was  John  Wentworth,  of 
Chicago,  known  as  "Long  John."  He  was  of  New  England 
stock  and  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  College.  He  had  been  the 
publisher  of  the  Chicago  Democrat  for  some  years,  had  served 
several  terms  in  Congress,  and  as  mayor  of  Chicago  had  distin 
guished  himself  by  his  economical  administration  of  municipal 
finances.  Though  originally  a  Democrat,  his  anti-slavery  sym 
pathies  had  carried  him  into  the  Republican  party.  His  posi 
tion  in  the  Convention  was  unique,  for  in  his  efforts  to  check 
the  enormous  expenditures  of  the  state  government  he  acted 
with  the  Democrats  more  often  than  with  the  Republicans. 
Other  prominent  Republicans  were  James  B.  Underwood, 
Wellington  Weighley,  and  W.  W.  Orme. 

II. 

THE  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  CONVENTION  AND  THE 
DEFEAT  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 

The  convention  met  at  Springfield  on  January  7,  1862. 
From  the  first  the  Democrats  showed  their  determination  to 
use  their  majority.  They  held  a  caucus  on  the  evening  of  the 
sixth  and  decided  on  a  program  for  the  next  day.  The  officers 
selected  by  this  caucus  were  duly  elected  at  the  first  session. 
They  were:  William  A.  Hacker  of  Union  county,  President; 
William  M.  Springer,  of  Logan  county,  Secretary;  and  John 

(393) 


10 

Merritt  of  Marion  county,  Assistant  Secretary.  All  of  these 
men  were  from  the  southern  part  of  the  state,  because  that  end 
of  the  state  had  absolute  control  of  the  caucus  and,  hence,  of 
the  convention. 

One  of  the  first  questions  that  arose  was  the  form  of  oath 
to  be  administered  to  the  members.  The  constitution  provided 
that  all  officers  occupying  positions  of  trust  or  profit  under  the 
state  government  should  take  an  oath  to  support  the  state  con 
stitution.  Mr.  Anthony  was  among  the  first  to  broach  the  sub 
ject.  His  position  and  that  of  the  majority  may  be  seen  from 
the  following  extract  from  his  speech  during  the  debate  on  the 
question:  "The  point  I  insist  on  is  that  the  Convention  itself 
should  determine  the  form  of  the  oath.  I  agree  that  the  oath 
prescribed  is  a  very  proper  one;  but  it  is  proper  for  the  Con 
vention  to  determine  the  matter  for  itself.  It  was  unanimous 
ly  decided  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  Ohio,  when  the 
subject  was  there  broached,  that  there  was  a  manifest  incon 
sistency,  that  delegates,  elected  to  revise  and  amend  the  con 
stitution,  should  take  an  oath  to  support  the  very  constitution 
they  were  called  upon  to  take  part  in  perhaps  entirely  revising 
and  remodeling."1  The  minority  took  the  ground  that  there 
was  no  inconsistency  in  members  swearing  to  support  the  con 
stitution  of  the  state,  since  the  convention  was  acting  under 
the  provisions  of  that  constitution  and  would  continue  to  do  so. 
They  pointed  out  that  this  act  was  prescribed  by  the  instrument 
which  would  continue  to  be  the  law  of  the  land  until  the  new 
constitution  should  be  ratified  by  the  voters  of  the  state.  The 
form  of  oath  which  the  majority  finally  decided  should  be  ad 
ministered  was:  "You  do  swear  to  support  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  faithfully  discharge  the  duties  of  your 
office  as  delegate  to  this  convention  for  the  purpose  of  amend 
ing  and  revising  the  constitution  of  the  state  of  Illinois."2  The 
fact  that  the  convention  refused  to  take  an  oath  to  support  the 


1  Debates  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  Jan.  7,  State  Register,  Jan.  8,  1862. 

2  Conv.  Journal,  p.  3. 

(394) 


11 

state  constitution  was  made  the  ground  for  continual  criticism 
by  the  Republican  press,  led  by  the  State  Journal  and  the  Chi 
cago  Tribune.  It  was  even  insisted  that  the  convention  was 
not  legally  organized  because  of  this  refusal  to  take  the  pre 
scribed  oath.1 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  a  resolution  was  passed 
providing  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  investigate 
"and  report  to  the  Convention  as  to  the  obligatory  force  of  the 
law  calling  this  Convention,  and  as  to  the  power  of  the  Con 
vention  to  appoint  a  printer."2  This  resolution  was  introduced 
to  allow,  if  possible,  the  appointment  of  a  Democratic  printer 
and  also  to  determine  the  extent  of  the  powers  of  the  Conven 
tion.  The  constitution  of  1848  had  provided  that  all  public 
printing  should  be  let  by  contract  to  the  lowest  responsible 
bidder.  The  legislature,  in  accordance  with  this  act,  had 
passed  a  law  defining  the  manner  in  which  the  printing  or 
dered  by  the  General  Assembly  should  be  contracted  for;  and 
the  law  calling  the  Convention  had  provided  that  the  Secretary 
of  State  should  "cause  such  printing  to  be  done  as  should  be  or 
dered  by  the  Convention."  Thus  there  was  no  necessity  for 
any  action  by  the  convention,  unless  it  wished  to  take  the  op 
portunity  to  test  its  powers.  The  committee,  consisting  of  An 
thony  Thornton,  Julius  Manning,  B.  S.  Edwards,  Wm.  J.  Allen, 
and  Elliott  Anthony,  reported  on  the  following  day.  The  ma 
jority  report  took  the  ground  that  the  law  calling  the  Con 
vention  was  no  longer  binding,  that  the  convention  was  su 
preme  on  all  questions  incident  to  the  alteration  and  amend 
ment  of  the  constitution,  and  that  it  had  full  power  to  contract 
for  such  printing  as  it  might  require.  Mr.  Anthony  brought  in 
a  minority  report  opposed  to  the  sweeping  powers  thus  as 
sumed.  He  claimed  that  the  legislature  was  empowered  to 
provide  for  the  printing  and  in  fact  had  already  done  so.3  The 

1  Editorial  in  the  State  Register,   Feb.  28,  1862,  quoting  from  the   Chicago  Tri 
bune;  also  numerous  editorials  in  the  State  Journal. 

2  Conv.  Journal,  p.  9. 

8  Report  of  proceedings  in  the  State  Journal,  Jan.  10,  1862. 

(395) 


12 

majority  report  was  adopted,  however,  by  a  vote  of  49  to  21. 
This  early  assumption  by  the  Convention  of  far  reaching  powers 
at  once  provoked  hostile  criticism  on  the  part  of  the  adminis 
tration  papers.  They  pointed  out  that  if  the  Convention  con 
sidered  itself  no  longer  bound  by  the  law  calling  it,  it  might 
also  refuse  to  observe  that  part  of  the  law  providing  that  its 
work  should  be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people.  This  criti 
cism,  however,  was  in  a  measure  silenced  by  the  passage  of 
a  resolution  late  on  the  same  day  that  all  changes  in  the  consti 
tution  should  be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people.1 

The  work  of  the  first  three  or  four  weeks  after  the  Conven 
tion  was  organized  was  done  principally  in  committee  meet 
ings.  During  this  time  the  general  meetings  were  devoted  to 
the  consideration  of  resolutions  covering  a  very  wide  range  of 
subjects.  Every  state  officer  was  called  upon  for  extensive  re 
ports.  Especially  was  there  a  marked  tendency  to  investigate 
the  governor's  office  and  the  manner  in  which  Governor  Yates 
had  conducted  the  organization  and  equipment  of  the  volun 
teers  and  the  expenditure  of  the  war  fund.  He  was  called  upon 
for  an  account  of  the  indebtedness  of  the  state,for  the  names  of 
all  contractors  to  be  paid  by  the  state,for  copies  of  contracts,and 
for  all  the  correspondence  relating  to  the  transfer  of  the  state 
commissary  department  to  the  United  States  Quartermaster 
General.2  He  was  also  called  upon  for  various  details  regarding 
the  organization  and  equipment  of  the  volunteers  of  the  state.3 
Information  was  demanded  regarding  military  arrests,*  and 
various  other  matters.  On  February  1 ,  a  resolution  was  passed 
"instructing"  the  governor  and  various  other  state  officers  to 
suspend  all  further  action  upon  the  claims  of  the  Illinois  Cen 
tral  Railroad  Company  until  the  convention  could  investigate 
its  claims.5  To  this  Governor  Yates  replied,  on  February  13, 

1  Conv.  Journal,  p.  28. 

2  Resolution  of  Wentworth,  Conv.  Journal,  Jan.  13,  p.  59. 

3  Resolution  of  Brooks,  Jan.  20,  Ibid.  p.  121. 

4  Resolution  of  Omelveney,  Feb.  11,  Ibid.  p.  407. 
6  Buckmaster's  resolution,  Feb.  i,  Ibid.  p.  236. 

(396) 


13 

that  he  denied  "any  right  of  the  Convention  to  instruct  him  in 
the  performance  of  his  duty  and  could  only  regard  the  resolu 
tion  in  the  light  of  advice."1  Connected  with  this  extensive 
investigation  of  the  executive  department  was  the  direction 
given  to  the  committee  on  military  to  inquire  into  the  way  in 
which  the  Illinois  soldiers  in  the  field  had  been  supplied.3  This 
committee  after  making  many  inquiries  reported3  toward  the 
close  of  the  Convention.  Thus  the  relations  between  the  Con 
ventions  and  the  governor  became  distinctly  hostile. 

In  the  heated  condition  of  politics  it  was  almost  inevitable 
that  national  issues  should  enter  into  the  discussions.  The 
questions  most  discussed  were  the  direct  tax,  the  negro  prob 
lem,  United  States  Treasury  notes,  and  the  proposed  amend 
ment  to  the  federal  constitution.  On  all  but  one  of  these  ques 
tions  definite  action  was  taken. 

The  negro  problem  was  a  serious  one  in  the  estimation  of 
the  representatives  from  the  southern  part  of  the  state,  and 
they  stood  for  severely  repressive  constitutional  provisions. 
The  delegates  from  several  of  the  northern  counties  considered 
all  provisions  in  regard  to  negroes  entirely  unnecessary  and 
only  calculated  to  arouse  party  feeling.  After  much  bitter  dis 
cussion  the  question  was  settled  by  the  insertion  in  the  consti 
tution  of  three  distinct  propositions,  which  were  to  be  voted 
upon  separately.  The  first  was  to  prevent  all  negroes  and  mu- 
lattoes  from  immigrating  to  and  settling  in  the  state,  the  second 
denied  them  the  right  of  suffrage  and  the  right  to  hold  office, 
and  the  third  gave  the  general  assembly  power  to  pass  all  nec 
essary  laws  to  carry  the  other  two  propositions  into  effect.* 

The  question  of  ratifying  the  proposed  thirteenth  amend 
ment  to  the  Constitution,  providing  that  Congress  should  never 
be  given  power  to  abolish  or  interfere  with  slavery  within  any 


1  Governor  Yates'  Communication,  Feb.  13;  Ibid.  p.  421. 

2  Resolution  of  Brooks,  Jan.  18,  Ibid.  p.  114. 

3  Report  of  Committee  on  Military,  Ibid.  p.  833. 

4  Article  XVIII.,  Negroes  and  Mulattoes,  Conv.  Journal,  p.  1,098. 

(397) 


14 

state,  was  disposed  of  in  a  way  to  arouse  considerable  criticism. 
In  submitting  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  states,  Congress 
had  provided  that  it  should  be  ratified  by  the  different  state 
legislatures.  In  spite  of  this  fact,  President  Hacker,  on  Febru 
ary  8,  brought  in  an  ordinance  ratifying  the  amendment.1 
This  ordinance,  in  the  face  of  strenuous  opposition  from  the 
more  conservative  members,  who  urged  the  impropriety  of  such 
action  while  the  war  was  still  in  progress  and  insisted  that  the 
Convention  was  powerless  to  take  any  legal  action  in  the  mat 
ter,  was  finally  passed  without  amendment  by  a  vote  of  thirty- 
nine  to  twenty-three.2 

Ordinances  were  not  popular  at  that  time,  but  they  were 
resorted  to  in  dealing  with  two  other  problems.  Mr.  Singleton, 
on  February  13,  submitted  an  ordinance  making  it  lawful  for 
all  collectors  of  revenue  within  the  state  to  accept  treasury 
notes  in  payment  for  all  fines  and  assessments.3  This  ordi 
nance,  however,  was  rejected.  The  Convention  tried  to  pro 
vide  for  the  settlement  of  the  direct  tax  levied  upon  the  state 
bv  Congress  by  passing  an  ordinance  authorizing  the  governor 
to  set  off  the  direct  tax  against  the  amount  due  the  state  from 
the  Federal  Government  on  account  of  supplies  furnished  Illi 
nois  volunteers.4  This  ordinance  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Ed 
wards  on  March  19,  and  the  Convention  promptly  passed  it. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  only  resolutions  were  passed  dur 
ing  the  first  four  weeks  of  the  Convention,  but  that  during  the 
last  six  weeks  of  its  existence  the  Convention  sought  to  settle 
questions  by  means  of  ordinances.  Of  these,  two  more  must  be 
mentioned.  After  the  news  of  the  severe  battle  at  Ft.  Donel- 
son,  people  were  vying  with  each  other  in  providing  for  the  re 
lief  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  On  February  18,  Mr. 
Manning  brought  in  his  famous  ordinance  appropriating 


1  Conv.  Journal,  p.  358. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  451. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  444. 

4  Ibid,  p.  940, 

(398) 


15 


or  THE 
I   UNIVERSITY   } 

cr 

4i-^QRjiiL 


$500,000  in  ten  per  cent,  bonds  for  the  relief  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers1  Of  all  the  impracticable  things  proposed 
by  the  convention,  this  was  probably  the  most  so.  Re 
lief  for  the  soldiers  was  needed  at  once.  It  would  take 
months  to  prepare  bonds  and  place  them  upon  the  market- 
Then,  too,  the  rate  was  absurd,  being  far  above  that  at  which 
the  state  could  readily  borrow.  The  most  serious  practical  dif 
ficulty,  however,  was  the  grave  doubt  as  to  the  authority  of  the 
convention  to  authorize  the  issue  of  such  bonds.  All  these 
objections  and  others  were  urged  against  the  passage  of  the  or 
dinance,  but  the  majority  would  listen  to  neither  reason  nor 
delay  and  adopted  the  measure  by  a  vote  of  fifty  to  sixteen.2 

The  last  ordinance  to  occupy  the  attention  of  the  Conven 
tion  was  that  of  Wentworth,  which  was  introduced  March  18 
and  passed  three  days  later.  It  provided  that  the  city  of  Chi 
cago  should  hold  a  special  election  on  the  third  Tuesday  in 
April,  1862,  at  which  the  people  should  vote  for  or  against  the 
proposition  that  the  city  elect  its  own  officers.  The  ordin 
ance  then  went  on  to  repeal  three  specific  acts  of  the 
legislature.3  This  ordinance  actually  went  into  effect, 
the  proposed  election  was  held,  and  the  people  voted  in 
favor  of  electing  their  own  officers.  On  the  defeat  of 
the  constitution  as  whole,  however,  the  city  government  con 
tinued  to  exist  as  before,  and  the  three  legislative  acts  supposed 
to  be  repealed  continued  to  be  enforced.4 

The  portions  of  the  constitution  that  received  most  atten 
tion  were  the  articles  on  banks  and  on  the  judiciary,  the  bill 
of  rights,  the  provision  for  suits  against  the  state,  and  the  sub 
ject  of  apportionment. 

The  article  on  banks  and  currency  was  important  because 
its  first  and  fifth  sections  were  to  go  into  immediate  effect  and 
remain  in  force  unless  the  constitution  should  be  rejected  by 


Conv.  Journal,  p.  479. 

Ibid.,  p.  430. 

Ibid.,  p.  923. 

Jameson,  The  Constitutional  Convention,  p.  397. 


16 

the  people.1  The  former  provided  that  in  future  no  banking 
corporation  nor  association  with  powers  of  circulation  should 
be  created  within  the  state,  and  the  latter  prohibited  the  audi 
tor  from  receiving  any  bonds  as  security  for  notes  to  be  issued 
thereon.  The  essential  features  of  the  fifth  section  had  been 
embodied  in  a  resolution  passed  on  the  seventh  of  February,2 
and  was  supposed  to  have  been  in  operation  from  that  date. 

There  were  two  great  objections  to  these  two  sections.  In 
the  first  place,  the  fifth  section  amounted  to  a  virtual  abroga 
tion  of  existing  bank  charters.  Many  members,  like  Thornton,8 
took  the  ground  that  the  bank  charters  were  contracts,and  that 
in  accordance  with  the  decision  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case 
it  was  not  within  the  power  of  the  convention  to  abrogate 
them.  On  the  other  hand.  Fuller,  Edwards,*  and  others  gave 
exhaustive  arguments  to  show  that  the  measures  were  not  at 
tacks  upon  vested  interests  and  that  bank  charters  are  really 
only  forms  of  general  legislation  which  may  be  changed  by 
subsequent  legislative  acts.  The  other  objection  was  that 
these  sections  should  not  go  into  immediate  effect,  that  legally 
they  could  not  do  so  until  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people. 
Some  members  of  the  convention,  as  for  example  Wentworth 
while  taking  the  general  ground  that  the  convention  had  no 
power  to  put  the  sections  into  immediate  effect  considered 
them  harmless.5  If  they  were  effective,  so  much  the  better; 
if  they  were  not  observed,no  harm  would  be  done. 

The  third  and  fourth  sections  of  the  same  article  provided 
that,  "after  the  year  1866  no  bank  bill,  check,  draft,  note, 
written  or  printed  instrument  of  any  kind,  character  or  de 
nomination  whatever,  (intended  to  circulate  as  money)  shall 
be  uttered  or  passed  in  this  state";6  and  that  the  legislature 


1  Conv.  Journal,  p.  937. 

2  Ibid.  p.  356. 

3  Debates  of  the  Const.  Conv.,  Feb.  5,  State  Register,  Feb.  7. 
*  Ibid.,  Feb.  3. 

6  Ibid.,  Feb.  i3. 

6  Conv.  Journal,  p.  1098, 

(400) 


17 

should  pass  laws  at  its  first  session  to  enforce  the  above  provi 
sions.  The  sixth  section  provided  that  no  corporation  with 
either  banking  or  deposit  powers  should  ever  be  created  in  the 
state.  The  whole  article  was  recognized  even  by  the  support 
ers  of  the  majority  as  too  radical  to  be  practicable.  Even  some 
of  the  Democratic  papers  recognized  this  fact.  This  article 
would  also  have  brought  the  state  into  direct  conflict  with* the 
Federal  Government  on  account  of  the  new  national  banks 
that  were  soon  to  be  provided  for  by  act  of  Congress. 

The  right  of  the  convention  to  reapportion  the  state  for 
legislative  purposes  was  not  questioned,  because  a  change  in 
the  number  of  representatives  made  a  new  apportionment  nec 
essary;  but  the  specific  apportionment  adopted  was  seriously 
objected  to,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  practical  gerrymander. 
There  is  evidence  that  it  was  intended  to  be  so,  but  that  phase 
will  be  discussed  later. 

The  national  reapportionment  of  congressmen  had  given 
Illinois  one  more  congressman  than  there  were  congressional 
districts  in  the  state.  This  was  at  once  seized  upon  as  an  ex 
cuse  for  reapportioning  the  state.  On  January  21,  a  resolu 
tion  was  passed  instructing  the  committee  on  judiciary  to  in 
quire  into  the  power  of  the  convention  to  redistrict  the  state 
for  members  of  Congress.1  The  majority  of  the  committee  re 
ported  favorably  on  January  22.2  A  minority,  holding  that  the 
convention  had  no  such  power,  made  its  report  two  days  later.3 
The  question  was  ably  discussed  in  the  convention  for  some 
time.  On  March  4,  the  committee  on  congressional  apportion 
ment  was  instructed  by  resolution  to  district  the  state  at  once 
for  members  of  Congress.*  Mr.  Fuller  presented  a  very  able 
non-partisan  argument  showing  the  apparent  necessity  for  such 
a  measure  and  the  right  of  the  convention  to  act  upon  it.5  The 

1  Conv.  Journal,  p.  131. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  136. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  179. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  695. 

6  Debates  of  the  Const.  Conv.,  Mar.  5,  State  Register,  Mar.  6,  15  and  18, 

(40i) 


18 

apportionment  was  bitterly  opposed  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
manifestly  partisan.  The  pressure  was  so  great  that  the  ma 
jority  finally  decided  to  submit  this  as  a  separate  measure  and 
so  not  endanger  the  whole  constitution. 

In  the  bill  of  rights  the  principal  things  discussed  were  the 
abolition  of  indictment  by  grand  juries  for  crimes  not  defined 
as  felonies  and  several  clauses  stating  the  relations  between 
the  Federal  and  the  state  governments.  The  discussions  went 
far  afield  and  led  to  the  introduction  of  much  matter  that  was 
purely  political  in  its  nature  and  of  no  practical  use  in  the 
formation  of  the  constitution. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  article  on  the  judiciary,  the  prin 
cipal  points  of  difference  were  the  increase  of  authority  given 
to  the  county  courts,  the  division  of  the  state  into  districts  for 
supreme  court  purposes,  and  the  various  places  at  which  ses 
sions  of  the  supreme  court  should  be  held.  The  question  of  the 
increase  of  expense  under  the  proposed  judicial  system  was 
also  discussed.  Questions  of  a  partisan  nature  did  not  mater 
ially  affect  the  debates  on  this  article.  The  provision  of  the 
constitution  allowing  suits  against  the  state  to  be  brought  in 
the  circuit  courts  was  somewhat  novel.  The  Daily  Pantagraph 
of  Bloomington  asserted  that  this  clause  was  introduced  in  the 
interests  of  the  McAllister  claims.1  The  wording  was  certainly 
adroit  enough  to  admit  that  claim,  and  but  few  others  t hat- 
were  then  pending.  Yet  no  such  charges  were  made  in  the  de 
bates  in  the  convention.  At  the  same  time  it  is  not  improba 
ble  that  the  parties  interested  in  those  claims  were  instru 
mental  in  securing  the  insertion  of  that  clause,  since  under  the 
leadership  of  Singleton,  they  made  a  determined  effort  to  have 
the  claims  allowed  by  the  next  legislature. 

The  most  effective  work  of  the  convention  was  done  dur 
ing  the  last  few  weeks  of  its  existence.  The  condemnation  of 
its  assumption  of  extreme  powers  and  of  its  scarcely  veiled 
attacks  upon  the  state  administration  became  so  severe  that 

1  Daily  Pantagraph,  June  6,  1862. 

(402) 


19 

the  members  of  the  convention  feared  that  any  constitution 
they  might  draw  up  would  be  rejected.  The  Republican  press, 
together  with  some  of  the  Democratic  papers  loyal  to  the  war 
policy  of  the  administration,  began  to  array  themselves  defi 
nitely  against  the  constitution.  Several  members  withdrew, 
from  the  convention  during  its  closing  days.  When  the  final 
vote  was  taken  on  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  only  forty- 
six  were  present,  and  of  these  four,  all  Republicans,  voted 
against  it.1  Only  fifty-four  members  signed  the  engrossed  copy 
The  three  Republican  members  from  Chicago,  Wentworth,  An 
thony  and  Muhlke  were  the  only  Republicans  who  were  willing 
to  affix  their  names  to  the  constitution  even  by  way  of  authen 
tication.2 

On  March  21,  Mr.  Burr,  acting  for  the  committee,  reported 
an  address  to  the  people3  which  discussed  in  detail  the  more 
important  features  of  the  constitution.  The  desirability  of 
increased  salaries  was  pointed  out  and  the  advantage  of  having 
them  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  legislature.  The  requirement 
that  bills  should  be  read  on  three  different  days  was  presented 
as  a  cure  for  the  evils  of  special  legislation.  It  was  claimed 
that  many  interests  were  cared  for.  The  tax  payer,  it  was  said, 
was  protected  by  the  limitation  on  the  debt-making  power  of 
municipalities  and  by  the  repeal  of  the  two-mill  tax;  the  labor 
er,  by  the  mechanic's  lien;  and  the  interests  of  the  volunteers 
by  giving  the  soldiers  in  the  field  the  right  to  vote.  The  article 
on  banks  was  held  up  as  the  only  remedy  for  the  evil  of  former 
banking  laws.  In  closing,  the  address  sought  to  show  that  the 
ordinance  in  regard  to  the  direct  tax  would  render  unnecessary 
an  extra  session  of  the  legislature,  defended  the  length  of  the 
session,  and  appealed  to  the  people  to  consider  the  constitution 
carefully  before  voting  upon  it.  A  hundred  thousand  copies  of 
this  address,  together  with  the  new  constitution,  were  ordered 
printed  in  pamphlet  form  and  distributed  to  the  members  of 

1  Conv.  Journal,  p.  1114.     Moses  says  48  were  present,  44  for,  4  against. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  1115. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  1038. 

(403) 


20 

the  convention  for  the  benefit  of  their  constituents.  The  Con 
vention  adjourned  on  the  morning  of  March  24,  having  been  in 
session  seventy-five  days. 

Before  leaving  Springfield  the  members  opposed  to  the  con 
stitution  effected  an  organization  and  made  preparations 
for  an  active  campaign  against  its  adoption.  The  influ 
ence  of  the  entire  state  administration  as  well  as  that  of  the 
Republican  congressmen  was  thrown  against  the  constitution. 
The  Republican  press  was  already  drawn  up  in  opposition,  even 
before  it  was  known  what  the  constitution  actually  contained. 
This  is  manifest  from  editorials  that  appeared  in  the  leading 
papers  about  the  time  of  adjournment.  Two  days  before  the 
Convention  adjourned  the  Chicago  Journal,  after  reciting  its 
early  distrust  of  the  politicians  in  the  Convention,  said:  "The 
partisans  have  framed  for  us  a  partisan  constitution  and  does 
any  candid  man  suppose  the  people  will  submit  to  the  attempt 
ed  outrage?  We  do  not!  We  think  we  can  say  with  safety 
that  they  will,  on  the  17th  day  of  June,  go  to  the  polls 
and  vote  the  whole  thing  down  and  thus  teach  the  petty  dema 
gogues  of  Illinois  a  lesson  that  may  serve  them  to  a  good  pur 
pose  as  long  as  they  live. 

"The  provisions  of  the  proposed  constitution  will  be  fully 
ventilated  hereafter.  The  people  do  not  fully  understand 
them,  but  will  be  fully  enlightened  on  every  point  before  the 
time  for  voting  on  them."1 

On  the  day  after  the  convention  adjourned  the  State 
Journal  said:  "By  the  shameless  gerrymander  which  they  call 
the  'legislative  apportionment'  they  have  arranged  a  program 
which  forever  cuts  off  all  hope  or  prospect  for  the  people  in  the 
future.  They  have  so  fixed  things  that  a  contemptible  minori 
ty  shall  govern  and  control  a  numerical  majority  without 
power  of  appeal  or  change.  What  other  enormities,  usurpa 
tions,  and  outrages  upon  popular  rights  the  proposed  constitu 
tion  embodies  remains  to  be  seen.  We  have  not  yet  had  a  chance 

1  Chicago  Journal,  editorial,  Mar.  22,  1862. 

(404) 


21 

to  examine  it  through."1  The  Chicago  Tribune  took  a  similar 
position.  In  none  of  these  papers  was  there  a  fair  discussion 
of  the  constitution  as  a  whole. 

The  principal  lines  of  attack  were  that  the  proposed  con 
stitution  greatly  increased  the  cost  of  the  state  government, 
that  it  carried  with  it  objectionable  negro  clauses,  that  the  pro 
vision  allowing  the  soldiers  to  vote  did  not  really  amount  to 
anything  as  the  commission  was  to  begin  taking  the  vote  be 
fore  the  constitution  was  printed,  that  the  legislative  and  con 
gressional  apportionments  were  gerrymanders  of  the  worst  type, 
and  that  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  would  be  heralded  as 
a  great  Democratic  victory  and  would  enable  the  Democrats  to 
control  the  state  government  for  years  to  come.2  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Democratic  journals  vigorously  defended  the  Consti 
tution  because  it  contained  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  clause, 
protected  labor  interests,  provided  for  a  board  of  agriculture, 
and  established  a  fixed  day  for  the  payment  of  taxes  and  as 
sessments.  They  also  claimed  that  the  new  congressional  appor 
tionment  was  really  in  favor  of  the  Republicans  and  that  the 
advantages  arising  from  the  limitation  of  the  power  of  muni 
cipal  corporations  to  tax,  and  from  the  repeal  of  the  two-mill 
tax  would  be  considerable.  This  is  the  same  line  of  argument 
taken  by  Burr  in  his  address  to  the  people  of  the  state. 

The  election  was  fiercely  contested  by  both  sides.  The  Re 
publican  newspapers  had  begun  the  campaign  while  the  Con 
vention  was  still  in  session  and  the  bitterness  of  their  attacks 
increased  as  the  day  of  election  drew  near.  The  more  conser 
vative  Democratic  journals  and  many  of  the  Union  Democrats, 
like  Hartley  and  Thornton,  did  what  they  could  to  defeat  the 
instrument.  The  most  potent  argument  appears  to  have  been 
that  taxes  would  be  greatly  increased  under  the  new  constitu 
tion.  Out  of  fourteen  exchanges,  representing  all  the  leading 
journals  of  the  northern  half  of  the  state  and  some  from  the 

1  Illinois  State  Journal,  editorial,  Mar.  25,  1862. 

2  From  the  Republican  papers  during  May  and  June,  1862. 

(405) 


22 

southern  part,  published  in  the  Chicago  Journal,  fully  one-half 
put  that  forward  as  the  main  argument.  Some  estimated  the 
increased  annual  expenditure  as  high  as  $213,000,  enough  to 
frighten  the  country  districts.  The  Republicans  made  it  not 
only  a  test  of  party  fealty  but  a  test  of  loyalty  to  the  govern 
ment  as  well;  and  whatever  arguments  they  put  forward,  one 
cannot  but  feel  that  the  real  reason  for  their  opposition  was 
the  fact  that  the  majority  in  the  Convention  had  attacked  the 
Yates  administration  and  had  drafted  a  partisan  constitution. 
The  following  satire  from  the  Chicago  Times  was  not  far  from 
the  truth.  Two  Republicans,  A  and  B,  meet  on  the  street;  A 
represents  the  majority  of  Republicans. 

"Mr.  A. — 'Good  morning,  Mr.  B.  I  suppose  you  will  be  out 
to  vote  against  the  Egyptian  swindle?  ' 

Mr.  B. — 'Why,  no.  I  am  thinking  of  voting  for  it.  I  rather 
like  the  article  on  banks.' 

Mr.  A.— 'Why,  you  don't  mean  to  say  you  have  read  it? 
Surely  no  loyal  man  would  be  guilty  of  reading  such  a  secession 
document!' ' 

No  doubt  many  Republicans  believed  the  constitution  was 
a  kind  of  secession  document  and  so  did  not  think  it  quite  loyal 
even  to  read  it,  to  say  nothing  of  voting  for  it.  The  Chicago 
Times,  although  conservative  for  many  weeks,  became  radical, 
too.  as  the  day  of  election  approached.  It  took  the  position 
that  no  Democrat  in  good  standing  could  oppose  the  constitu- 
tiou.  Both  sides  resorted  to  every  political  device  at  their 
command  and  both  appeared  confident  of  victory. 

The  first  reports  indicated  that  the  constitution  had  been 
adopted  and  the  Democratic  papers  rejoiced  accordingly.  The 
following  extract  from  the  Chicago  Times  on  the  day  following 
the  election  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  bitterness  of  the  contest. 
"It  was  a  political  issue  made  so  by  the  Republican  leaders  and 
by  every  Republican  newspaper  in  the  state.  The  Democracy 
accepted  the  issue,  behold  the  result!  It  has  been  a 
fiercely  fought  contest  by  the  Republican  leaders  and 

(406) 


23 

newspaper  organs,  and  the  contest  was  commenced  at  the  as 
sembling  of  the  constitutional  convention  in  January. 

"The  majority  of  the  Convention  were  denounced  as  a  band 
of  secession  conspirators,  and  the  constitution  has  never  been 
alluded  to  by  a  Republican  newspaper  in  any  more  gracious 
terms  than  a  'secession  ordinance',  an  'Egyptian  swindle',  an 
'accursed  thing'  and  no  known  supporter  of  it  has  escaped  the 
epithets  of  'secessionist'  and  'traitor',  and  the  result  of  the 
election,  according  to  these  Republican  newspapers,  was  to  de 
cide  whether  Illinois  is  a  loyal  or  a  secession  state.  Other  ele 
ments  entered  in.  The  influence  of  the  Federal  Government 
as  far  as  congressmen  could  aid  was  thrown  against  the  consti 
tution,  as  well  as  banks,  railroads  and  express  companies." 
The  article  went  on  to  claim  the  election  by  20,000. 

That  this  article  really  does  not  misrepresent  the  attitude 
of  the  Republicans  is  shown  by  the  following  editorial  from  the 
organ  of  the  State  administration:  "Illinois  is  saved  from  the 
grasp  of  traitors.  They  had  made  provisions  for  the  state  ad 
ministration  so  they  could  elect  anti-war  men  in  place  of  the 
present  faithful  state  officers.  They  were  felicitating  them 
selves  that  they  were  about  to  open  a  fire  in  the  rear  of  the 
Union  cause — but  the  best  laid  schemes  have  come  to  naught. 
Thank  God!  Illinois  is  saved  from  their  grasp  and  the  Nation 
al  Union  rescued  from  its  great  impending  danger.  We  breathe 
freer!"1 

The  early  reports  that  the  constitution  had  been  adopted 
were  too  sanguine.  As  the  country  districts  sent  in  their  re 
turns  the  certainty  that  the  instrument  was  defeated  became 
more  and  more  apparent.  According  to  the  schedule,  six  dif 
ferent  propositions  were  to  be  voted  on,  viz:  The  constitution 
as  a  whole,  the  three  negro  propositions,  the  article  on  banks 
and  currency,  and  the  congressional  apportionment.  Of  these, 
the  constitution  as  a  whole,  the  bank  proposition,  and  the  ap- 

1  State  Journal,  June  23,  1862. 

(407) 


24 

portionment  were  defeated.     The  negro  propositions  were  car 
ried.     The  totals  are  given  below:1 

For  the  new  constitution 125,052 

Against  the  new  constitution 141,103 

For  the  Bank  proposition 126,538 

Against  the  Bank  proposition 1 3°.339 

For  negro  and  mulatto  proposition,  No.  J2 171,896 

Against  negro  and  mulatto  proposition,  No.  1 7L3°6 

For  negro  and  mulatto  proposition,  No.  2;1 211,920 

Against  negro  and  mulatto  proposition,  No.  2 35,^49 

For  negro  and  mulatto  proposition,  No.  34 198,938 

Against  negro  and  mulatto  proposition.  No.  3 44.4H 

For  the  congressional  apportionment 125,740 

Against  the  congressional  apportionment I32»97° 

The  geographical  distribution  of  the  votes  may  be  seen 
from  the  maps  at  the  end  of  this  essay.  A  map  showing  the 
vote  of  1860  is  also  given  to  show  how  closely  that  against  the 
constitution  coincided  with  that  for  Lincoln. 

The  commission  to  take  the  vote  of  fche  soldiers  in  the  field 
was  composed  of  S.  A.  Buckmaster,  W.  S.  Grale  and  Mr.  Curran 
of  Springfield.  They  commenced  taking  the  vote  soon  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  Convention,  but  never  completed  their 
task.  What  votes  they  did  take  are  not  recorded  and  appar 
ently  were  never  officially  reported.  On  this  account,  the  atti 
tude  of  the  soldiers  toward  the  constitution  can  only  be 
gleaned  from  soldier  correspondents  whose  letters  appeared 
from  time  to  time  in  the  newspapers.  The  following  figures 
have  been  obtained  from  such  communications: 

For  the  Constitution.  Against. 

33rd  Infantry5 5  568 

5th  Cavalry5 12  729 

I3th  Infantry5 9  650 

The  "Normal  Regiment"0 6  693 

62nd  Infantry7 21  212 

1  From  official  register  of  votes  in  the  Sec.  of  State's  Office. 

2  Excluding  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  the  state. 

3  Denying  negroes  and  mulattoes  the  right  of  suffrage. 

4  Giving  the  legislature  power  to  enforce  the  other  two  sections. 

5  Chicago  Tribune,  June  12. 

6  Daily  Pantagraph,  June  17. 

7  Chicago  Tribune,  June  20. 

(408) 


25 

In  addition  to  these  figures  we  have  the  following  scraps 
of  information  on  the  subject.  "At  Paducah  the  commission 
ers  commenced  taking  the  vote  of  the  6th  cavalry,  which  was 
raised  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state.  Having  taken  300 
votes  they  found  all  but  two  were  against  the  constitution."1 
"The  commissioners  took  the  votes  of  the  Illinois  soldiers  sta 
tioned  at  Columbus  and  Hickman.  Nearly  1,200  votes  were 
polled,  of  which  over  900  were  against  the  adoption  of  the 
constitution.  It  is  significant  that  most  of  those  voting  against 
it  are  Democrats/'2  "The  8th  cavalry  and  the  regiment  known 
as  the  Yates  phalanx,  now  in  the  Potomac  army,  have  voted 
almost  unanimously  against  the  thing,  and  likewise  all  the 
regiments  stationed  in  Tennessee  that  have  had  an  opportunity 
offered."3  "The  60th  infantry,  Colonel  Toler's,  which  our 
readers  know  to  be  a  thoroughly  Egyptian  and  so  Democratic 
regiment  cast  less  than  twenty-five  votes  against  the  constitu 
tion.  Good  for  the  60th."*  "Wallace's  division  will  send  up  a 
majority  of  about  8,000  against  the  adoption  of  the  constitu 
tion — vote  informal."5  "Stephen  Gale,  one  of  the  commissioners, 
writes  to  a  gentleman  in  this  city  that  out  of  1,800  votes  taken 
in  Kentucky,  1,500  were  against  and  300  for  the  adoption  of  the 
constitution."6 

This  testimony  certainly  indicates  that  the  soldiers  did  not 
favor  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  and  as  far  as  they  had 
a  chance  voted  heavily  against  it.  It  is  also  interesting  to  note 
that  in  the  33rd  infantry,  raised  at  Dixon,  only  six  votes  were 
cast  for  the  negro  propositions  to  650  votes  against  them.7  At 
the  same  time  these  propositions  were  carried  or  nearly  carried 
in  the  counties  from  which  these  volunteers  came.  This  seems 


1  Ottawa  Republican,  quoted  in  the  Chicago  Journal,  June  4. 

2  Sterling  Gazette,  quoted  in  the  Chicago  Journal,  June  4. 

3  Woodstock  Sentinel,  quoted  in  the  Chicago  Journal,  June  4. 
*  Cairo  Gazette,  quoted  in  the  Chicago  Journal,  June  4th. 

5  Missouri  Democrat,  quoted  in  the  State  Journal,  July  30. 

6  Chicago  Tribune,  June  Q. 

7  Missouri  Democrat,  quoted  in  the  Daily  Pantagraph,  June  11. 

(409) 


26 

to  show  that  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  abolition  developed  fast 
er  in  the  army  than  among  the  voters  left  at  home. 

There  were  many  rumors  as  to  what  the  commissioners 
were  going  to  do  about  the  soldiers'  vote.  Before  it  was  known 
that  the  constitution  was  defeated  in  the  state,  the  Republican 
press  hinted  that  the  adverse  vote  of  the  soldiers  would  be 
thrown  out  as  illegal.  After  the  result  in  the  state  was  known, 
some  of  the  Democratic  papers  urged  those  who  had  friends  in 
the  army  to  use  their  influence  to  secure  votes  for  the  constitu 
tion  and  thus  secure  its  adoption  in  spite  of  the  adverse  vote 
already  cast  against  it.  In  answer  to  this  appeal  the  Republi 
can  papers  charged  that  the  soldier  vote  was  to  be  fraudulently 
manipulated  in  the  interest  of  the  "Egyptian  Democracy." 
Probably  none  of  these  charges  and  rumors  had  much  founda 
tion,  for  the  composition  of  the  commission  to  take  the  vote 
was  a  sufficient  guarantee  against  corruption. 

III. 

THE  REJECTED  CONSTITUTION. 

In  his  Constitutional  History  of  Illinois,  Mr.  Anthony  says 
that  the  new  constitution  was  a  good  one  and  would  have  been 
an  improvement  over  that  of  1848.  Since  it  was  never  tested, 
it  is  impossible  to  say  just  how  well  it  might  have  worked;  but 
in  the  light  of  present  experience  it  has  some  very  serious  de 
fects.  Among  these  was  the  article  on  banks  and  currency. 
This  would  have  driven  every  banking  institution  in  the  state 
out  of  business,  and  in  its  operation  would  have  conflicted  with 
the  National  Banking  Act.  The  experiences  of  the  few  years 
preceding  the  calling  of  the  Convention  had  not  been  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  arouse  much  enthusiasm  for  banks  of  any  kind. 
There  had  been  so  many  failures  and  abuses,  and  wild-cat  bank 
ing  under  the  old  laws  had  been  so  notorious,  that  some  posi 
tive  remedy  was  necessary;  but  the  proper  remedy  did  not  lie 
in  the  direction  of  the  measure  adopted.  The  fact  that  banks 

(410) 


27 

had  been  badly  managed  was  no  sufficient  reason  for  abolishing 
them  entirely.  When  one  considers  the  enormous  expansion 
of  the  credit  system  under  our  present  banking  laws,  he  cannot 
but  be  convinced  that  the  extreme  prohibitions  of  this  part  of 
the  constitution  would  have  seriously  interfered  with  business. 

The  clause1  in  the  article  on  the  legislative  department 
practically  allowing  the  state  to  be  sued  in  any  circuit  court  of 
the  state  seems  questionable.  According  to  this  section  the 
legislature  was  compelled  to  appropriate  money  to  pay  the 
claims  allowed  by  the  courts.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any  state 
can  consistently  allow  itself  to  be  sued.  Most  of  the  states  re 
fuse  to  be  made  the  defendant  in  a  suit  at  law,  and  it  was  some 
thing  of  an  innovation  for  the  state  of  Illinois  to  take  a  differ 
ent  attitude.  In  order  to  prevent  the  encroachment  of  the  ju 
diciary  upon  the  legislative  department  the  courts  should  not 
have  the  last  word  to  say  on  claims  against  the  state,  but  the 
legislative  department  should  be  free  to  determine  such  claims 
in  its  own  wray. 

The  provision  that  bills  should  be  read  at  large  on  three 
separate  days  would  have  checked  but  would  not  have  pre 
vented  private  and  special  legislation.  The  provision  that 
only  general  laws  should  be  passed  on  certain  subjects  would 
have  been  adequate  so  far  as  it  went.  A  far  larger  number  of 
subjects  were  reserved  for  general  laws  than  was  the  case  in 
the  constitution  of  1848.  The  subject  of  private  legistion  had 
been  one  of  the  most  crying  evils  under  the  old  constitution. 
On  this  subject  the  constitution  of  1862  stands  about  midway 
between  the  ineffective  regulation  of  1848  and  the  almost  com 
plete  prohibitions  of  the  present  constitution. 

The  only  essentially  new  propositions  in  the  bill  of  rights 
were  sections  11  and  31.     The  former  provided  for  a  summary  . 
trial  in  all  criminal  cases  not  amounting  to  felony,  and  the 
latter  stated  the  ideas  of  the  convention  regarding  the  nature 
of  the  union  between  the  states.     The  term  of  the  state  officers 

1  Article  IV,  sec.  32. 

(411) 


28 

was  reduced  from  four  to  two  years  and  the  existing  officers 
were  to  be  turned  out  of  office  in  the  middle  of  the  term  for 
which  they  had  been  elected.  In  this  way  a  new  election  was 
ordered  at  an  inopportune  time.  Aside  from  the  immediate 
partisan  advantage  of  such  a  measure  there  seems  no  really 
good  reason  why  the  length  of  term  should  be  reduced  to  two 
years.  The  fact  that  local  officers  were  to  hold  office  for  four 
years  made  the  measure  appear  extremely  partisan.  The  pro 
vision  that  salaries  of  state  officers  should  be  fixed  by  statute 
and  not  by  the  Constitution  was  excellent,  enabling  the  legis 
lature  to  provide  for  changes  in  salaries  to  correspond  with 
changes  in  the  cost  of  living.  The  apportionments  were  arbi 
trary  and  partisan,  but  since  they  could  be  changed  by  subse 
quent  legislation  the  constitution  as  a  whole  should  not  be 
condemned  too  harshly  for  this  reason  alone.  Yet,  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  the  apportionments  would  not  have  enabled 
the  minority  to  control  the  state  government  for  some  time  to 
come. 

There  were  a  number  of  innovations  in  the  article  on  Ju 
diciary,  some  of  them  good,  others  untried  and  doubtful.  The 
provision  of  a  prosecuting  officer  for  each  county,  instead  of  one 
for  each  judicial  circuit  as  formerly,  we  have  found  to  work  satis 
factorily.  The  clauses  giving  to  the  county  courts  extensive  orig 
inal  jurisdiction  in  criminal  cases,  the  abolishing  of  indictments 
by  a  grand  jury  in  cases  not  punishable  by  death  or  imprisonment 
in  the  penitentiary,  and  the  reduction  of  the  grand  jury  from 
twenty-three  to  fifteen  were  some  of  the  novel  provisions.  They 
might  have  worked  fairly  well,  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  the 
people  were  ready  to  abandon  the  practice  of  indictment;  for, 
although  the  present  constitution  permits  its  abolition,  it  is 
still  retained  as  a  part  of  our  judicial  machinery,  nor  has  the 
grand  jury  been  reduced  in  size.  On  this  question,  our  present 
constitution  stands  about  half  way  between  the  two  ex 
tremes  of  the  constitutions  of  1848  and  of  1862.  It  is  doubtful  if 
the  giving  of  extensive  judicial  powers  in  criminal  cases  to  the 

412 


29 

county  court  would  have  been  as  satisfactory,  as  the  retention  of 
such  jurisdiction  in  the  hands  of  the  circuit  courts.  At  least, 
the  constitutions  of  1848  and  of  1870  agree  in  giving  the  county 
courts  probate  business  and  such  minor  civil  and  criminal  cases 
as  might  be  fixed  by  law;  but  entrust  the  majority  of  criminal 
cases  and  important  civil  cases  to  the  circuit  courts.  The  pro 
posed  tax  on  civil  cases  is  another  novel  feature  of  this  section, 
and  one  that  would  not  have  rendered  justice  any  easier  for 
the  litigant  with  but  little  money.  The  increase  in  the  num 
ber  of  Supreme  Court  districts  was  absolutely  essential  to  meet 
the  demands  of  the  state. 

There  were  some  excellent  provisions  in  regard  to  revenue. 
All  taxes,  both  state  and  local,  were  to  fall  due  at  the  same 
time  and  were  to  be  collected  by  the  same  person.  This  is  the 
only  sensible  way  in  which  taxes  levied  by  different  corporate 
bodies  can  be  collected.  It  saves  expense,  and  relieves  the  tax 
payer  of  the  annoyance  of  paying  his  taxes  in  small  sums,  to 
various  persons,  and  at  inconvenient  times.  The  limitation 
placed  on  municipalities  and  local  corporate  bodies,  forbidding 
them  to  lend  their  credit  to  any  company  or  private  corpora 
tion  was  a  needed  provision.  It  is  far  less  detailed,  however, 
than  the  provisions  of  our  present  constitution  on  the  same 
subject. 

The  clauses  in  regard  to  negroes  and  mulattoes  were  radi 
cal  in  their  nature;  yet,  judging  by  the  vote  on  these  clauses, 
they  seem  to  have  been  acceptable  to  a  majority  of  the  people. 
These  provisions,  however,  would  soon  have  been  rendered  in 
operative  by  the  new  amendments  to  the  Federal  constitution. 

The  mechanic's  lien  provision  and  the  clause  regarding  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  and  its  obligations  to  the 
state,  were  most  excellent  measures  and  have  been  retained  in 
our  present  constitution.  The  provision  that  foreigners  could 
vote  after  a  year's  residence  was  probably  only  a  bid  for  the 
foreign  vote  in  the  state.  The  state  should  at  least  insist  upon 
its  voters  being  citizens  of  the  United  States.  The  increase  in 


(413) 


30 

the  expenses  of  the  state  that  would  have  resulted  had  the  con 
stitution  been  adopted  would  have  been  considerable,  but,  on 
the  whole,  this  increase  was  both  necessary  and  desirable. 

In  order  that  the  relation  between  the  constitutions  of  1848 
and  of  1862  and  of  1870  may  be  seen,  the  essential  provisions 
of  the  three  are  shown  in  parallel  columns  as  follows: 


CONSTITUTION,    1848. 

Preamble 

Legislature      .     .     . 

(a)  Size:  Senate  25, 
House  75. 

(b)  Pay:    $2   a  day  for 
42   days,  then   $i  a 
day. 

(c)  Debt       Limitation: 
$50,000. 

(d)  Legislation:      Laws 
not    required   to  be 
general,  bills  might 
be  read  by  title  only. 


(e)  Claims:  Must  be 
proved  before  some 
tribunal  and  allow 
ed  by  the  legisla 
ture. 

Executive 

Governor:    Term    four 
years,  salary  $1500. 

Judicial 

(a)  Supreme  Court. 

1.  Judges:       Three, 
term  nine  years. 

2.  Divisions:  Three 
grand. 


3.  Judicial  districts: 
Nine. 


CONSTITUTION,    1862. 

Same 

Legislature 

(a)  Size:  Senate  33, 
House  102. 

(b)  Pay:  $3  a  day. 


(c)  Practically        the 
same. 

(d)  Legislation:       A  1  1 
bills    to  be  read  at 
large  on  three  dif 
ferent  days;  gener 
al  laws  required  in 
certain   cases,  such 
as    divorces,    roads 
and      town      plots, 
practice    in    courts 
of  justice,  changing 
county  seats. 

(e)  Claims:    Suits    may 
be  brought  against 
the  state  in  any  cir 
cuit  court. 

Executive 

Governor:  Term  t  w  o 
years,  salary  fixed  by 
law. 

Judicial 

(a)  Supreme  Court. 

1.  Judges:       Three, 
term  nine  years. 

2.  Divisions:  Three 
grand. 


3.  Judicial  districts: 
Sixteen. 


CONSTITUTION,    1870. 

Same 

Legislature 

(a)  Size:  Senate  51, 
House  153. 

(b)  Pay:  $5   a  day  and 
mileage    of    loc    a 
mile. 

(c)  Debt        Limitation: 
$250,000. 

(d)  Legislation:       A  1  1 
laws  to  be  general. 


(e)  Claims:  State  never 
to  be  made  defend 
ant  in  any  suit  at 
law. 

Executive  ...... 

Governor:  Term  four 
years,  salary  to  be 
fixed  by  1  ivv. 

Judicial 

(H)  Supreme  Court. 

1.  judges:       Seven, 
salary  $4000,  term 
nine  \  ears. 

2.  Divisions:  Three 
grand     divisions, 
seven        election 
districts;  may  be 
changed  by  law. 

3 


(414) 


31 


CONSTITUTION,    1848. 

CONSTITUTION,  1862. 

CONSTITUTION,    1870. 

Judicial  —  (  Continued) 

Judicial  —  (  Continued) 

Judicial  —  (  Continued) 

4.  Places   of    meet 

4.  Places  of    meet 

4.  Places   of   meet 

ing:    Three,    Mt. 

ing:  Chicago,  Ot 

ing:  Same   as    in 

Vernon,     Spring 

tawa,    P  e  o  r  i  a  , 

1847;     legislature 

field,  Ottawa. 

Springfield,      Mt. 

may  change. 

Vernon. 

(b)  County  Court. 

(b)  County  Court. 

(b)  County  Court. 

I.  No   county  attor 

i.  A    county    attor 

i.  A    county    attor 

ney. 

ney. 

ney. 

2.  Original  jurisdic 

2.  Original  jurisdic 

2.  Original  jurisdic 

tion:      In      civil 

tion:       In      civil 

tion:    In    probate 

cases  and   crimi 

cases   and   in  all 

cases    and    such 

nal    cases   where 

criminal  cases 

other      cases    as 

punishment  is  by 
fine  only  and  does 

not  punishable  by 
death  or   impris 

should   be   given 
it  by  general  law 

not  exceed  $100. 

onment      in     the 

passed  by  the  leg 

penitentiary. 

islature. 

3.  Indictment:       In 

3.  Indictment:    Not 

3.  Indictment:     I  n 

criminal        cases 

necessary  except 

criminal       cases 

necessary.  Grand 

in  cases  of  felony. 

maybe  abolished 

jury  of  23  men. 

Grand    jury    but 

by  law. 

15  men, 

(c)  Circuit  Courts. 

(c)  Circuit  Courts. 

(c)  Circuit  Courts. 

i.  State's      attorney 

i.  Sixteen  circuits. 

i.  Legislature      t  o 

for   each    circuit, 

determine  the  cir 

nine  circuits. 

cuits,  each  circuit 

to  contain  100,000 

inhabitants. 

Suffrage 

Suffrage      .                       . 

Suffrage 

i.  Universal,     white 

i.  Same,  but  foreigners 

i.  Universal    manhood 

manhood  suffrage. 

could  vote  after  one 

suffrage. 

year's  residence. 

2  

2.  Soldiers  allowed    to 

2  

vote. 

Banks       

Banks      .     .          .... 

Banks      . 

I.  All  banking  laws  to 

i.   New  banks  absolute 

i.  Provided  for  the  pas 

be   submitted  to  the 

ly     prohibited,      old 

sage   of     ,-\     general 

people. 

ones  to  have  issues 

banking    law;    must 

taxed. 

be  submitted  to  the 

people. 

Amendments  

Amendments      .... 

Amendments  

i.  By  convention. 

i.  By  convention. 

i.  By  convention. 

2.  By  vote-of  two-thirds 

2.  By  vote  of  two-thirds 

2.  Essentially  the  same 

of      the     legislature 

of      the      legislature 

as   that  of    1847,  ex 

amendments     could 

amendments      could 

cept  amendments  to 

be     submitted,    but 

be  submitted,  but  on 

the      same      art'cle 

on   only  one   article 

only  two  articles  at  a 

could  not  be  submit 

at  a  time. 

time. 

ted  oftener  than  once 

in  four  years. 

Apportionments  .... 

Apportionments      .      .     . 

Apportionments      .      .     . 

i.  Legislative. 

i.  Legislative. 

2.  Congressional. 

(415) 


32 


CONSTITUTION,  1848. 
(Continued) 

Negroes  and  Mulattoes  . 
Prohibited  from  enter 
ing  the  state  if  free 
persons. 


Revenue      .... 

1.  Two  mill  tax, 

2.  Poll  tax  allowed. 


Bill  of  Rights      .     .     .     . 

Education 

i.  No  specific  provision. 


CONSTITUTION,  1862. 

( Continued) 

Negroes  and  Mulattoes  . 
Prohibited  from  enter 
ing  the  state,  denied 
the  right  of  suffrage, 
legislature  to  enforce 
provisions. 

Revenue     

1.  No  two  mill  tax. 

2.  Poll  tax  allowed. 

3.  Illinois  Central  nev 
er  to  be  freed  from 
its  obligations  to  the 
state. 

Bill  of  Rights      .... 
Education  ...... 

1.  General  Assembly  to 
provide  an   efficient 
system    of      free 
schools. 

2.  State     Superintend 
ent. 

3 


CONSTITUTION,   1870. 

(Continued] 
Negroes  and  Mulattoes    . 


Revenue     

1.  No  two  mill  tax. 

2.  No  poll  tax  mention 
ed. 

3.  Illinois  Central  Rail 
road  never  to  be  re 
leased. 

Bill  of  Rights      .     .     .     , 

Education 

i.  Same. 


2.  State     and      county 
superintendents. 

3.  No  local    appropria 
tion    for    private    or 
sectarian  schools. 


IV. 

DISCUSSION   IN   THE   CONVENTION   REGARDING  THE 
NATURE  OF  ITS   AUTHORITY. 

There  were  three  leading  instances  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  convention  in  which  it  passed  upon  its  own  powers.  The 
first  of  these  discussions  was  on  its  right  to  appoint  a  printer, 
the  second  on  its  right  to  ratify  the  proposed  amendment  to 
the  constitution,  and  the  third  on  its  authority  to  reapportion 
the  state  for  members  of  Congress.  The  principle  involved  in 
the  first  question  was  whether  the  convention  was  bound  by 
the  constitution  and  the  law  under  which  it  was  called.  In 
discussing  the  resolution  instructing  the  special  committee  to 
report  on  this  matter  and  specifically  on  the  right  of  the  Con 
vention  to  appoint  a  printer,  Mr.  Fuller  said:  "As  I  understand 
the  law,  the  only  object  of  the  act  is  to  provide  a  mode  for 

(416) 


33 

ascertaining  the  will  of  the  people  with  regard  to  the  selection 
of  delegates,  and  when  they  are  once  chosen,  and  the  machinery 
of  the  Constitutional  Convention  put  in  motion,  it  cannot  be  ham 
pered.  Is  it  controlled  by  the  Constitution?  How  is  it  possible 
it  can  be  after  the  Convention  has  met?"1  The  committee, 
consisting  of  Messrs.  Thornton,  Manning,  Edwards,  W.  J. 
Allen,  and  Anthony  took  the  following  position,  Anthony,  how 
ever,  dissenting  from  the  views  of  the  majority:  u  It  (the 
Convention)  is  a  virtual  assemblage  of  the  people  of  the  state, 
sovereign  within  its  owTn  boundaries,  as  to  all  matters  affecting 
the  happiness,  prosperity  and  freedom  of  the  citizens,  and 
supreme  as  to  the  exercise  of  all  powrers  necessary  to  the 
establishment  of  free  constitutional  government,  except  as 
limited  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  *  *  *  *  The  fol 
lowing  conclusions  are  arrived  at:  That  after  due  organization  of 
the  Convention,  the  law  calling  it  is  no  longer  binding;  and 
that  the  Convention  has  supreme  powers  in  regard  to  all  mat 
ters  incident  to  the  alteration  and  amendment  of  the  Con 
stitution  ;  and  it  has  full  power  to  contract  for  such  printing  as 
it  may  require."2 

Mr.  Anthony,  in  discussing  this  report,  objected  to  the  ex 
treme  pretensions  and  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  said:  "I 
should  like  to  ask  some  gentleman  this  question:  Has  the 
supreme  power  of  this  state  passed  out  of  the  people  to  the 
delegates  of  this  Convention?  and  if  so,  and  they  had  the  will 
to  disorganize  the  present  system  of  government  now  in  ex 
istence,  and  discharge  the  officers  of  the  state,  have  they  the 
power?"3  In  reply  to  this,  Mr.  Richmond  said:  "  I  can  only 
answer  for  myself,  that  if  the  exigencies  of  the  state  required 
it,  this  Convention  could  proceed  to  appoint  a  governor — just 
the  same  as  they  have  in  the  state  of  Missouri."'  But  he  de 
clared  that  all  action  should  be  submitted  to  the  people. 

1  Proceedings  of  Const.  Conv.,  Jan.  7,  in  the  State  Register,  Jan.  8. 

2  Conv.  Journal,  p.  19. 

'•'  Proceedings  of  the  Const.  Conv,,  Jan.  9,  in  the  State  Register,  Jan.  15. 
4  Ibid. 

(417) 


34 

Other  members  speaking  on  the  report  expressed  similar  views. 
The  majority  of  the  delegates  supported  the  majority  report  of 
the  committee  and  so  took  the  ground  that  the  Convention 
was  supreme  in  its  powers.  They  decided,  however,  by  a  later 
resolution  that  its  action  should  be  submitted  to  the  people. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  held  by  many  members  that  submission, 
\vhile  the  proper  thing,  was  not  necessary.  Even  Mr.  Thornton 
in  discussing  the  bank  proposition  said:  "The  most  liberal  con 
struction  would  impose  no  obligation  upon  the  convention  to 
submit  its  action  to  the  people."1 

In  the  discussion  of  the  second  point  involving  the  scope  of 
its  authority,  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Judiciary  on  the 
power  of  the  convention  to  redistrict  the  state  for  congress 
men,  held  that  the  convention  was  a  legislature  and  had 
general  legislative  powers.  The  following  passage  will  illus 
trate  the  views  of  the  committee:  "A  Convention  legally  as 
sembled  for  the  purpose  and  with  the  power  to  frame  the 
organic  law  of  a  state  is  a  legislature,  and  not  only  so,  but  a 
legislature  within  the  meaning  of  this  particular  provision 
(that  the  state  legislatures  should  determine  the  manner  of 
choosing  members  of  Congress)  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  *  *  *  *  This  Convention  is  a  legislature  authorized 
to  create  laws  which  may  abolish  other  legislatures;  and  whose 
enactments,  when  sanctioned  by  the  people,  will  be  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land.  It  has  the  power  (whether  it  may  be 
thought  expedient  to  exercise  it  or  not)  to  change,  amend, 
annul,  or  establish  the  existing  laws  of  the  state;  for  instance, 
in  regard  to  practice  and  pleading,  evidence,  marriage  and 
divorce,  or  in  regard  to  any  other  kindred  subject.  *  *  *  *  This 
Convention  being  a  legislature  and  being  superior  in  power  in 
the  act  of  making  laws,  to  any  ordinary  legislature,  may  at  least 
do  in  changing  or  abrogating  the  acts  of  a  former  general 
assembly  what  a  subsequent  general  assembly  might  do."2 


1  Debates  in  the  Conv.  Feb.  3,  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  7. 

2  Conv.  Journal,  p.  137. 

(418) 


35 

Mr.  Weighley,  from  the  same  committee,  brought  in  a 
minority  report  in  which  he  took  a  different  view.  In  part  it 
was  as  follows:  "This  Convention  is  not  called  here  to  super 
sede  the  legislature,  or  to  enact  and  revise  laws  for  the  govern 
ment  of  the  people;  but  to  propose  (not  make)  amendments  to 
the  organic  law  of  the  state.  *  *  *  *  If  this  Convention  is  an  em 
bodiment  of  the  people,  and  for  that  reason  can  perform  all  the 
functions  of  the  legislature  proper,  by  the  same  process  of 
reasoning,  it  may  perform  the  duties  of  the  two  other  co 
ordinate  branches  of  the  state  government.  It  could  depose 
the  governor  and  proceed  at  once  to  exercise  the  prerogatives 
of  that  public  functionary.  It  could  remove  the  judges  of  the 
supreme  court  now  holding  session  in  this  capital  and  transfer 
the  business  to  this  floor,  to  be  decided  by  vote  of  the  Conven 
tion."1  His  report  goes  on  to  argue  that  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  forbids  an  apportionment  by  a  convention 
because  it  has  delegated  that  power  to  the  state  legislature, 
and  that  even  a  favorable  vote  of  the  people  of  the  state  cannot 
legalize  such  an  action.  The  convention,  however,  adopted 
the  views  of  the  majority  of  the  committee. 

The  question  whether  the  convention  possessed  general 
legislative  power  was  also  considered  in  discussing  the  resolu 
tion  putting  certain  sections  of  the  article  on  banks  into 
immediate  operation.  Terry,  Underwood  and  Stinson  took 
advanced  ground  against  the  power  of  the  Convention  to 
declare  an  act  in  force  at  once.  In  reply,  Mr.  Burr  said:  ''Does 
any  gentleman  in  this  hall  say  that  this  Convention  is  inferior 
to  the  legislature,  or  to  the  executive  or  to  the  judicial  depart 
ments  of  the  state?  Sir,  we  have  the  power  to  change  all  these 
organizations  completely.  The  power  of  the  convention  is 
three-fold.  It  is  the  epitome  of  all  the  powers  existing  in  the 
state  of  Illinois."  After  interruption  he  continued:  "I  was 
going  on  to  say  that  this  Convention  is  an  epitome  of  all  the 
powers  which  exist  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  It  is  superior  to  the 

1  Ibid,  p.  177. 

(419) 


36 

legislature  and  different  from  all  the  branches  of  the  govern 
ment  in  its  sphere  of  action,  and  superior  to  everything  *  *  *  * 
limited  only  by  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United'States."1 
Mr.  Omelveny  discussing  the  same  question  said:  "I  believe 
this  Convention  has  every  judicial  power,  every  legislative 
power,  that  the  people  of  the  state  possess.  I  believe,  further 
more,  and  I  believe  it  ought  to  do  it,  that  it  has  the  power  to 
suspend  the  law  with  respect  to  this  army  board  and  suspend 
their  action  at  once."  * 

Congress  had  provided,  when  it  submitted  to  the  states  the 
proposed  thirteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which  has 
already  been  mentioned,  that  it  should  be  ratified  by  the  legis 
latures  of  the  various  states.  Before  the  convention  could 
ratify  the  amendment  it  was  necessary  that  it  should  assume 
to  be  a  legislature.  This  was  a  step  that  even  some  of  the 
leading  Democrats  would  not  take.  Mr.  Edwards  spoke  at 
length  on  the  lack  of  power  of  the  convention  to  ratify  the 
amendment.3  Mr.  Omelveny,  however,  took  the  same  position 
that  he  had  taken  on  the  bank  resolution,  contending  that  the 
convention  was  a  legislature  in  the  full  meaning  of  that  term 
as  used  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  bill 
passed  by  Congress.  Later,  he  said:  "  We  have  no  power  to 
change  the  mode  (of  ratification)  but  I  did  say  that  either  the 
one  mode  or  the  other  was  proposed,  and  that  this  body  had 
the  power  if  necessary,  since  it  is  both  a  convention  and  a 
legislature."4  In  discussing  the  same  question,  Mr.  Singleton 
said:  "  This  is  the  legislature.  This  body  is  what  all  writers  on 
law  denominate  the  supreme  law  making  power  of  the 
state.  *  *  *  *  What  are  we  here  for^  What  powers  are  we 
exercising?  If  we  make  laws  are  we  not  a  legislative  body?  " 

Mr.  Underwood  stated  the  position  of  those  opposed  to  the 
assumptions  of  the  majority.     He  put  forth  his  viewrs  in  a  very 

1  Debates  in  Const.  Conv.  Feb.  i  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  3. 

2  Debates  in  the  Const.  Conv.  Feb.  i,  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  3. 
*  Debates  in  Const.  Conv.  Feb.  12,  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  22. 

4 Debates  in  the  Const.  Conv.  Feb.  12,  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  22. 

(420) 


37 

able  argument  in  which  he  discussed  the  main  propositions 
as  follows:  First.  The  Convention  has  not  the  power  to  ratify 
the  amendment;  because  the  Constitution  gives  Congress 
power  to  prescribe  the  method  of  ratification  and%  Congress  has 
prescribed  the  legislature  as  the  proper  body;  because  the 
delegates  were  not  sent  there  for  that  purpose;  and  because  all 
of  our  acts  should  be  submitted  to  the  people  before  becoming 
binding.  Second.  If  the  convention  had  the  power  it  would 
be  inexpedient  to  use  it  at  this  time,  because  there  is  no  real 
danger  that  slavery  in  the  states  will  ever  be  interfered  with 
by  the  general  government;  because  the  passage  of  this  meas 
ure  would  provoke  the  abolitionists  to  agitate  again  for  an 
amendment  to  prohibit  slavery;  and,  finally,  because  it  would 
be  a  degrading  concession  on  the  part  of  the  government.1  The 
majority  of  the  delegates,  however,  by  their  votes  supported 
the  extreme  view  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  convention;  and 
the  ratification  by  the  convention  is  the  only  action  of  the 
state  on  this  amendment  recorded  by  the  Secretary  of  State. 
The  Convention  attempted  to  exercise  many  powers  over 
and  above  the  power  to  draft  a  Constitution.  It  assumed 
power  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  the  different  divisions  of 
the  executive  department,  especially  as  regards  military  af 
fairs;  and  it  should  be  noted  that  the  investigations  carried  on 
by  the  committee  on  military  and  the  committee  on  finance 
were  conducted  as  legislative  investigations  and  not  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  information  necessary  to  the  drafting  of  a 
constitution.  It  attempted  to  instruct2  state  officers  in  the  per 
formance  of  their  duties.  In  the  case  of  the  bank  resolution 
and  specifically  in  the  case  of  Wentworth's  ordinance  to  allow 
the  people  of  the  city  of  Chicago  to  assume  control  of  their  own 
city  government,  it  repealed  or  suspended  acts  of  the  state 
legislature.  In  refusing  to  be  governed  by  the  provisions  of 
the  law  calling  the  convention  it  defied  an  act  of  the  state 

1  Debates  in  the  Const.  Conv.  Feb.  12,  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  24. 

-  Resolution  on  Illinois  Central  Railroad  claims  and  the  bank  resolution. 

(42i) 


38 

legislature.  It  reapportioned  the  state  for  members  of  Congress. 
It  ratified  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution.  It  pro 
vided  for  the  payment  of  a  direct  tax1  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  It  attempted  to  issue  bonds.8  It  proclaimed 
the  bank  resolution  and  the  three  ordinances  introduced  by 
Edwards,  Manning  and  Wentworth,  respectively,  to  be  in  im 
mediate  force.  It  appointed  election  commissioners  for  the 
taking  of  a  portion  of  the  votes.  It  appropriated  money  in 
several  instances;  viz.,  for  the  pay  of  a  printer,  for  witnesses  in 
the  special  investigation  of  charges  of  disloyalty,  for  the  relief 
of  the  wounded  soldiers  at  Ft.  Donelson,  for  extra  pay  to  state 
officers  for  work  done  in  getting  out  reports  for  use  of  the 
members,  and  extra  pay  for  officers  of  the  convention. 

This  list  of  powers  is  a  formidable  one.  and  several  of  them 
were  not  recognized  by  other  departments  of  the  state.  The 
governor  curtly  refused  to  recognize  the  instructions  contained 
in  the  resolution  concerning  claims  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail 
road.3  Manning's  ordinance,  with  its  appropriation  of  half  a 
million  dollars,  came  to  nothing.  The  auditor  refused  to  rec 
ognize  the  validity  of  the  resolution  granting  the  state  officers 
pay  for  extra  work  required  by  the  convention,  and  this  claim 
was  allowed  only  after  the  next  legislature  had  made  an  appro 
priation  for  that  purpose.*  The  votes  of  the  soldiers,  as  taken 
by  the  special  commission,  were  never  recorded  by  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  probably  on  the  ground  that  such  votes  were  not 
legally  taken.  We  do  not  know  that  the  commission  ever  re 
ported  the  results  of  its  labors.  The  pretended  ratification  of 
the  proposed  amendment  was  not  recognized  as  valid  by  the 
men  responsible  for  such  action  and  the  next  legislature  rati 
fied  it  in  the  prescribed  manner.  The  supreme  court  of  the 
state  in  the  case  of  the  City  of  Chicago  vs.  A.  C.  Coventry  et  al., 
the  case  not  being  reported,  decided  that  the  ordinance  repeal- 

1  Edwards'  Ordinance,  Conv.  Journal,  p.  940. 

2  Manning's  Ordinance,  Conv.  Journal,  p.  472. 
'Conv.  Journal,  p.  421. 

4 Jameson,  The  Const.  Conv,,  p.  402. 

(422) 


39 

ing  certain  acts  for  the  government  of  Chicago  and  empower 
ing  the  city  to  elect  its  own  officers  was  not  binding,  that  the 
convention  was  not  competent  to  repeal  an  act  of  the  legisla 
ture,1  and  that  all  action  by  the  convention  was  swept  away 
by  the  defeat  of  the  constitution.  Thus  the  attempt  of  the 
convention  to  exercise  the  power  of  a  provisional  government 
came  to  naught. 

The  discussions  have  brought  out  two  theories  regarding 
state  constitutional  conventions.  One  is  that  it  is  endowed 
with  all  the  powers  of  the  people  whom  it  represents  and  is 
limited  in  its  action  only  by  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States;  the  other  is  that  the  convention  is  only  a  collection  of 
delegates  called  to  propose  specific  constitutional  changes  and 
is  limited  in  its  action  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  called. 
The  majority  in  the  convention  of  1862  maintained  and  acted 
upon  the  first  theory,  which  was  by  no  means  a  novel  one.  It 
was  asserted  in  the  New  York  convention  of  1821.  "In  1829,  it 
again  made  its  appearance  in  the  Virginia  convention.  A 
question  arose  as  to  the  power  of  that  convention  to  disregard 
positive  instructions  of  the  legislature  relative  to  the  submis 
sion  of  the  fruits  of  its  labor  to  the  people.  In  the  discussion 
of  this  question,  doctrines  were  propounded  which  afterward 
ripened  into  the  theory  in  question." 1  On  this  question  John 
Randolph  said:  "Sir,  we  have  been  called  as  counsel  to  the 
people,  as  state  physicians  to  propose  remedies  for  the  state's 
diseases,  not  to  pass  any  act  which  shall  have  in  itself  any 
binding  force.  We  are  here  as  humble  advisers  and  proposers 
to  the  people." 3 

The  next  instance  of  similar  pretensions  was  in  1836  in  the 
letter  of  Mr.  Dallas  on  the  powers  of  the  convention  about  to  be 
assembled  in  Pennsylvania.  In  this  letter  he  said:  "A  conven 
tion  is  the  provided  machinery  of  peaceful  revolution.  *  *  *  * 


Jameson,  The  Const.  Conv.,  p.  397. 

2  Ibid,  p.  295. 

3  Debates  in  the  Va.  Conv.,  1829,  p.  868. 

(423) 


40 

When  ours  shall  have  assembled,  it  will  possess,  within  the 
territory  of  Pennsylvania,  every  attribute  of  absolute  sovereign 
ty,  except  such  as  may  have  been  yielded  and  are  embodied  in 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  What  may  it  not  do?  It 
may  reorganize  our  entire  social  existence;  *  *  *  *  it  may 
restore  the  institution  of  slavery  among  us;  *  *  *  *  it  may  with 
draw  the  charters  of  our  cities;  *  *  *  *  it  might  permanently 
suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  take  from  us  *  *  *  * 
the  trial  by  jury."  1  When  the  Pennsylvania  Convention  met 
there  was  considerable  discussion  as  to  whether  the  law  calling 
it  was  binding  and  how  wide  were  the  powers  which  the  Con 
vention  actually  possessed.  Some  of  the  opinions  expressed 
indicated  that  the  theory  advanced  by  Dallas  was  growing. 
Ten  years  later,  in  the  Illinois  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1847,  the  two  theories  again  clashed.  General  Singleton,  who 
was  one  of  the  "high  rollers,"  or  radicals,  in  the  convention  of 
1862.  tried  to  get  a  resolution  adopted  saying  that  the  conven 
tion  was  limited  to  the  proposing  of  changes  in  the  constitution, 
but  his  resolution  was  tabled.2  In  the  discussion  of  the  question 
Mr.  Peters  said:  "  He  had  and  would  continue  to  vote  against 
any  and  every  proposition  which  would  recognize  any  restric 
tions  of  the  powers  of  this  convention."  "  We  are,"  he  con 
tinued,  "the  sovereignty  of  the  state.  We  are  what  the  people 
of  thestate  would  be  if  they  were  congregated  here  in  one  mass 
meeting.  We  are  what  Louis  XIV  said  he  was,  'We  are  the 
State.'  We  can  trample  the  Constitution  under  our  feet  as 
waste  paper,  and  no  one  can  call  us  to  account  save  the 
people."  3 

"  In  1849  this  same  theory  made  its  appearance  in  the  Ken 
tucky  convention,  and  four  years  later  in  Massachusetts  under 
the  patronage  of  Messrs.  Hallett  and  Butler."4  In  1861  it  ap 
peared  in  the  secession  conventions.  In  the  Alabama  Con- 

1  Letter  of   Hon.   George   M.   Dallas   in   the    Penrisylvanian,  Sept.  5,    1836,   in 
Jameson,  Const.  Conv.,  p.  292. 

2  Journal  of  the  Convention  of  1847,  p.  13. 

3  State  Register,  June  10,  1847.    Jameson,  the  Constitutional   Convention,  p.  292. 

4  Jameson,  the  Constitutional  Convention,  p.  296. 

(424) 


41 

vention  of  that  year,  Yancey  said:  "  The  people  are  here  in  the 
persons  of  their  deputies.  Life,  liberty  and  property  are  in  our 
hands.  Look  to  the  ordinance  adopting  the  Constitution  of 
Alabama.  It  says  '  We,  the  people  of  Alabama7,  etc,  etc.  All 
our  acts  are  supreme  without  ratification  because  they  are  the 
acts  of  the  people  acting  in  their  sovereign  capacity."  l  In  the 
meantime  the  theory  had  been  extended.  In  Maryland,  in 
1837,  the  doctrine  was  put  forward  that  a  mere  majority  of  the 
adult  males,  without  regard  to  legal  forms,  can  at  any  time 
call  a  convention  to  alter  or  abolish  a  constitution.  A  call  for 
a  convention  was  issued  by  private  individuals,  who  only 
desisted  upon  the  appearance  of  a  proclamation  of  the  governor 
denouncing  their  action  as  treasonable.2  "  Five  years  later  in 
Rhode  Island  a  convention,  called  by  unofficial  persons,  and 
claiming  to  represent  the  people  of  the  state,  because  deputed 
by  a  majority  of  all  the  male  citizens  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
resident  in  the  state,  though  not  by  a  majority  of  the  legal 
voters  at  a  regular  election,  framed  a  constitution,  and  at 
tempted  by  force  of  arms  to  maintain  it  as  the  legitimate  con 
stitution  of  the  state." 

Thus  the  members  of  the  convention  of  1862  could  point 
to  many  instances  in  which  claims  similar  to  their  own  had 
been  put  forward.  Some  of  the  members  had  heard  the 
question  debated  in  the  [convention  of  1847,  and  had  matured 
the  theory  in  their  own  minds.  The  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  asserted  by  the  latter  Convention  were  not,  how 
ever,  favorable  for  a  dispassionate  and  judicial  discussion  of  the 
essential  principles  involved. 

V. 
PARTISANSHIP  IN  THE  CONVENTION. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  leaders  in  the  convention 
had  made  up  their  minds  to  have  a  democratic  program  carried 

1  History  and  Debates,  Alabama  Conv.,  1861,  p.  114. 
-Jameson,  Constitutional  Convention,  p.  297. 

(425) 


42 

out.  On  the  very  day  the  convention  met,  the  St.  Louis  Ee- 
publican,  whose  correspondent l  was  probably  in  a  position  to 
know  the  actual  condition  of  affairs,  has  the  following  state 
ment:  "It  is  expected  -that  the  Convention  will  adopt  some 
measures  not  strictly  related  to  the  constitution.  Much  dis 
satisfaction  is  manifested  in  some  circles  with  the  management 
of  army  affairs  here  by  the  officials  of  the  state.  It  is  the  opin 
ion  of  many  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  the  state  should 
surrender  entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  officers  of  the  general 
government  the  management  of  all  matters  relating  to  Illinois 
troops,  and  especially  that  the  expenses  incurred  in  supporting 
the  state  war  machinery  should  no  longer  burden  the  treasury 
of  the  state.  ;]  :  *  *  The  Convention  is  quite  likely  to  adopt 
an  ordinance  suspending,  for  the  present,  certain  war  measures 
adopted  by  the  special  session  and  restraining  the  executive 
officers  of  the  state  from  further  active  army  operations  con 
ducted  at  the  expense  of  the  state.  It  is  believed  that  some 
such  measure  or  ordinance  would  give  satisfaction  to  the  people 
of  the  state,  relieve  them  from  expenses  which  the  government 
offers  to  assume,  and  dissatisfy  nobody  but  an  army  of  officials 
whose  support  is  derived  from  offices  which  at  first  were  un 
doubtedly  necessary,  but  have  served  their  purpose  and  should 
no  longer  be  maintained."2 

An  article  in  the  Chicago  Tribune  on  the  same  day  indicates 
a  similar  plan.  "We  mast  not  conceal  from  our  readers  that 
there  are  rumors  afloat;  *  *  *  *  that  it  is  said  that  the  time 
and  occasion  will  be  embraced  as  peculiarly  favorable  to  the 
reorganization  of  the  Democratic  party  on  the  semi-disloyal 
platform  occupied  by  the  Chicago  Times  and  other  kindred 
prints;  that  with  a  high  hand  and  in  violation  of  all  precedent, 
a  new  state  administration  will  be  organized  by  the  Convention 
itself;  that  a  very  odious  apportionment  will  be  made;  and  to 
render  all  sure,  the  constitution  when  completed,  will  be  de- 

1  The   Pantagraph,  on  Jan.  8,  says  Springer  was   the   correspondent  for  the  St. 
Louis  Republican. 

2 Quoted  editorially  in  the  State  Register,  Jan.  8. 

(426) 


43 

clared  in  force  without  submission  to  the  people.  We  give  no 
credit  to  such  rumors.  *  *  *  *  We  have  faith  that  the  good 
feeling  that  was  so  conspicuous  in  the  election  of  delegates  will 
be  carried  into  the  deliberations  that  are  to  ensue." 1  It  is 
evident  that  these  reports  were  well  founded,  for  the  Demo 
crats  held  caucuses  on  every  question  of  importance,  a  course 
that  was  certain  to  rouse  partisan  opposition,  and  from  the 
first  session  assumed  a  hostile  attitude  toward  the  state  admin 
istration. 

This  hostility  towards  the  Yates  administration  took  two 
forms:  an  attempt  to  unearth  fraud  in  the  management  of  the 
military  department,  and  the  attempt  to  displace  the  existing 
state  officers  by  reducing  their  terms  to  two  years  and  ordering 
an  election  for  the  next  November.  During  the  first  few 
weeks  of  the  convention,  resolution  after  resolution  was 
showered  upon  Governor  Yates  apparently  in  the  form  of  mere 
inquiries,  but  in  reality  calculated  to  git^e  the  impression  that 
there  were  gross  frauds  in  the  executive  department.  The 
committee  on  military  was  instructed  to  carry  on  an  investiga 
tion  as  to  whether  Illinois  soldiers  were  as  well  equipped  as 
volunteers  from  other  states;  and  if  they  were  not,  the  com 
mittee  should  fix  the  responsibility  for  their  poor  equipment. 
The  information  to  be  gained  could  not  be  and  was  not 
intended  to  be  of  use  in  the  formation  of  a  constitution.  The 
committee  on  finance  was  ordered  to  investigate  the  war  ex 
penditures.  The  majority  reported  that  the  governor  had 
exceeded  his  authority  in  some  expenditures,  and  that  he 
had  retained  control  of  the  supply  department  after  the 
Quartermaster  of  the  United  States  had  signified  his  willingness 
to  take  charge  of  it.2  On  more  than  one  occasion  members  of 
the  convention  in  discussing  resolutions  of  inquiry  or  demands 
for  information  insinuated  that  there  was  crookedness  in  the 
financial  administration  of  the  state.  One  of  the  most  notable 

1  Quoted  editorially  in  the  State  Journal,  Jan.  8. 

2  Conv.  Journal,  pp.  674-688. 

(427) 


44 

cases  of  this  was  in  the  speech  of  Mr.  Buckmaster  discussing 
the  resolution  instructing  the  governor  and  the  army  auditors 
to  suspend  action  in  the  case  of  the  claims  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad.  In  this  speech,  he  insinuated  that  the 
governor  had  induced  Army  Auditor  Woodworth  to  retain  his 
position  so  as  to  pass  the  claim  of  the  Illinois  Central  which 
the  newly  appointed  auditor,  Mr.  Henderson,  refused  to  pass.1 
It  turned  out  on  later  investigation  that  there  was  absolutely 
nothing  in  the  charge.  It  was  only  one  of  the  numerous  in 
stances  in  which  extreme  partisan  feeling  manifested  itself. 
The  hostile  attitude  toward  Governor  Yates  was  so  marked  that 
it  needs  no  further  illustration. 

The  partisan  nature  of  the  majority  was  also  seen  in  the 
way  they  deferred  action  upon  or  amended  resolutions  over 
Union  victories.  Anthony's  resolutions  over  the  victory  of  Ft. 
Henry  furnish  an  illustration.  They  were  referred  to  a  com 
mittee  that  reported  them  back  the  next  day  carefully  shorn 
of  all  their  patriotic  fervor.  Such  action  was  not  popular,  nor 
was  it  looked  upon  as  being  quite  loyal.  The  patriotic  fervor 
was  so  great  that  no  attempt  was  made  to  modify  Anthony's 
Ft.  Donelson  resolutions.  The  majority  then  tried  to  ride  with 
the  popular  movement. 

Manning's  appropriation  ordinance  for  the  relief  of  the 
soldiers  appears  to  have  been  little  else  than  an  attempt  to 
make  political  capital  out  of  the  Ft.  Donelson  victory.  To  be 
sure,  Mr.  Manning  denied  this  and  tried  to  get  the  resolution 
through  without  debate,  saying:  "I  can't  fiddle  while  Rome  is 
burning"2;  but  his  motion  for  the  previous  quest-ion  was  lost. 
In  the  debate  both  Wentworth  and  Lawrence  referred  to  the 
treasurer's  statement  that  there  was  already  lying  in  the  vaults 
of  his  office  the  sum  of  $800,000  in  unsold  bonds  which  could  be 
used  if  necessary.  The  facts  in  the  case  were  clearly  stated: 
that  the  governor  was  on  the  ground,  that  he  knew  the  condi- 

1  Conv.  Journal,  p.  420. 

2  Debates  in  the  Const.  Conv.,  Feb.  18,  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  26. 

(428) 


45 

tions,  that  he  had  not  asked  for  any  assistance,  that  if  neces 
sary  the  bonds  already  printed  could  be  sold,  that  it  would  re 
quire  considerable  time  to  print  and  sign  the  new  bonds,  that 
the  Convention  was  without  the  power  to  authorize  such  bonds, 
and  that  even  if  it  had  such  power,  the  rate  of  ten  per  cent  was 
such  as  seriously  to  endanger  the  credit  of  the  state.  All  these 
objections  were  urged;  nevertheless,  the  convention  passed 
the  ordinance  by  a  decisive  majority. 

Anthony  in  his  Constitutional  History  of  Illinois  says  re 
garding  this  affair:  ''There  never  was  a  more  praiseworthy 
object:  but  as  the  ordinance  was  introduced,  as  all  who  were 
members  of  the  Convention  know,  as  a  bluff,  and  to  silence 
hostile  criticism  of  the  action  of  those  who  were  in  the  major 
ity,  it  is  needless  to  say  it  never  amounted  to  anything." 
Three  days  after  the  passage  of  the  ordinance,  the  State  Jour 
nal  in  an  editorial  said:  "The  people  will  treat  with  contempt 
and  scorn  the  despicable  meanness  that  would  attempt  to  make 
political  capital  out  of  the  misfortunes  of  our  brave  soldiers."1 
The  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  Tribune  says  in  the  issue  of 
February  30:  "The  appropriation  of  $500,000  for  the  wounded 
soldiers  is  the  subject  of  much  comment.  Members  even  who 
voted  for  it  look  upon  it  as  a  ridiculous  proceeding."  The  next 
day  the  correspondent  goes  on  to  say  that  it  was  hurting  the 
credit  of  the  state  and  that  there  had  been  many  telegrams  of 
inquiry  from  financial  houses  concerning  the  strange  action. 
The  State  Journal  editorially  says:  "However  incorrect  the 
action  of  the  Convention  may  appear  to  those  at  a  distance,  it 
is  notorious  here  that  the  so-called  ordinance  was  intended  for 
no  other  object  than  merely  as  a  voucher  to  the  Democratic 
majority  in  the  Convention,  whose  previous  opposition  to  the 
war  expenditures  had  raised  a  question  as  to  their  loyalty.  It 
is  looked  upon,  not  only  by  members,  but  by  all  who  have 
watched  the  movements  of  the  Convention  as  a  'ridiculous  pro 
ceeding'  and  damaging  to  the  credit  of  the  state,  prompted  not 

1  State  Journal,  Feb.  21. 

(429) 


46 

by  necessity  but  by  a  personal  dread  of  popular  vengeance."1  A 
few  days  later  the  same  paper  said:  "We  hear  it  stated  that 
one  of  the  most  prominent  Democrats  in  the  Convention  can 
didly  admits  that  the  famous  ordinance  was  an  innocent  piece 
of  buncombe."3  The  above  quotations  show  the  consensus  of 
opinion  among  Eepublicans.  The  Democratic  papers  defended 
the  ordinance  vigorously  for  a  time,  but  later  preferred  to  dis 
cuss  other  things. 

The  legislative  apportionments  were  admittedly  in  the  in 
terest  of  the  Democrats.  Mr.  Hacker  in  discussing  the  appor 
tionment  for  members  of  the  lower  house  said:  "So  far  as  I 
am  concerned  as  an  individual  member  of  this  Convention  and 
a  Democrat  in  whom  there  is  no  guile,  I  do  not  feel  disposed 
to  go  for  any  proposition  which  will  make,  in  any  contingency, 
the  next  general  assembly  doubtful."3  Mr.  Buckmaster  in  dis 
cussing  the  senatorial  apportionment  explained  why  Clinton 
county  with  a  population  of  10,000  was  added  to  St.  Clair  and 
Washington  counties  which  already  had  more  than  the  proper 
population  for  a  district.  In  part  he  said:  "I  am  willing  to 
admit  to  the  gentleman  from  St.  Clair,  fra.nkly,  that  I  am  act 
ing  as  a  Democrat  in  this  thing;  for  in  the  first  place,  if  we 
make  a  Democratic  representation  it  will  be  right;  *  *  *  Clin 
ton  county  with  a  population  of  ten  or  eleven  thousand,  and 
St.  Clair  with  her  large  population,  have  three  contiguous  dis 
tricts,  and  we  gave  it  up  to  her  because  she  is  entitled  to  it> 
and  because  of  another  thing  equally  important,  it  will  make 
the  St.  Clair  district  Democratic  beyond  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt."*  This  was  a  very  frank  confession  of  a  deliberate  ger 
rymander  of  the  state.  In  discussing  the  legislative  apportion 
ment  he,  Buckmaster,  said  that  "he  was  elected  as  a  square- 
toed  Democrat  and  that  if  the  balance  of  the  Democratic  party 
felt  as  he  did  it  would  be  a  party  constitution."5 

1  State  Register,  Feb.  23. 

2  Ibid,  Feb.  26. 

3  Debates  in  the  Const.  Conv..  in  the  State  Register,  Mar.  21. 

4 Debates  in  the  Const.  Conv.,  Mar.  10.  in  State  Register,  Mar.  20. 
5  Ibid. 

(430) j 


47 

The  following  from  the  Quincy  Whig  shows  how  partisan 
the  legislative  apportionment  was  and  how  the  Republican 
press  looked  upon  it.  "  The  Egyptians  at  Springfield  have  in 
corporated  into  their  new  constitution  a  grand  legislative 
apportionment  scheme  which  is  to  give  the  dark-skinned 
Democracy  power  for  the  next  hundred  years— perhaps.  By 
way  of  showing  how  they  mean  to  do  it,  notice  that  the  follow 
ing  seven  Republican  counties  with  a  population  of  about 
164,000  are  allowed  seven  members: 

Henry  20,661  Ogle  22,887 

Rock  Island      21,005  Jo  Davies      27,177 

McHenry          22,088  Winnebago    24,492 

Stephenson  25,113 

"  And  then  read  this  list  of  ten  Egyptian  counties  with  a 
population  of  less  than  131,000  which  are  to  have  ten  members: 
Williamson         12,205  Marion          13,733 

White  12,403  Christian     10,493 

Jefferson  12,965  Shelby          14,635 

Washington        13,731      -  Clark  14,987 

Monroe  12,832  Schuyler      14,685 

"  However,  there  is  little  need  of  debate  on  the  worth  of 
the  constitution.  Its  illegality  is  in  every  respect  so  transpar 
ent  that  no  fair  minded  man  can  hesitate  about  voting  the 
thing  down  as  soon  as  the  chance  is  offered.  It  smells  to 
heaven  with  infamy  and  corruption."  l  The  Chicago  Tribune 
estimates  that  the  apportionment  would  havo  given  the  Re 
publicans  who  were  in  the  majority  in  the  state,  12  senators 
out  of  33  and  42  representatives  out  of  102. 

It  was  claimed  that  the  negro  question  was  repeatedly 
brought  forward  as  a  convenient  method  of  arousing  party 
spirit  and  so  arousing  an  element  that  would  help  carry  the 
constitution  at  the  polls.  In  the  very  closing  days  of  the 
session  one  of  these  negro  propositions  was  brought  up  and  the 
attempt  made  to  force  it  through.  Probably  the  negro 

1  Quoted  in  Pantagraph,  March  24. 

(430 


48 

question  was  pushed  to  the  front  so  as  to  arouse  the  prejudices 
of  the  southern  part  of  the  state,  as  that  was  the  section  which 
controlled  the  Convention.  Of  the  officers  of  the  Convention, 
not  a  single  one  came  from  north  of  Logan  county.  The  im 
portant  committees  were  controlled  by  men  from  the  southern 
half  of  the  state  assisted  by  northern  delegates  who  \vere  in 
sympathy  with  the  extreme  policy  of  the  majority.  It  was  no 
accident,  either,  that  this  condition  existed.  It  has  already 
been  pointed  out  that  the  Democratic  majority  acted  as  a  party 
during  the  organization  of  the  convention,  and  throughout  the 
entire  session  disposed  of  almost  every  important  question  that 
arose  during  the  proceedings  by  practically  a  party  vote.  In 
their  zeal,  however,  to  make  the  constitution  satisfactory  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  Democratic  party  and  its  ideas,  the 
leaders  overreached  themselves;  and  in  the  eyes  of  many  Re 
publicans  the  vote  on  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  became 
a  test  of  loyalty.  Even  though  the  constitution  had  been  ac 
ceptable  in  itself,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  people  would  have 
ratified  it  after  the  open  hostility  shown  by  the  Convention  to 
the  war  policy  of  the  state  administration. 

VI. 

THE  CHARGE  OF  DISLOYALTY 

As  soon  as  it  was  evident  that  the  Convention  was  to  be 
controlled  by  the  Democrats  in  the  interests  of  their  party,  the 
Republican  papers  began  to  make  imputations  as  to  the  loyalty 
of  some  of  the  members.  The  day  after  the  Convention  organ 
ized  the  Chicago  Tribune  said:  "It  is  probably  the  most  ultra 
Democratic  body  ever  assembled  in  the  state  *  *  :^  there  is 
nothing  they  may  not  do."  About  at  the  close  of  the  first 
week  of  the  session  the  same  paper  contributed  the  following: 
"The  people  of  Illinois  will  do  well  to  watch  the  operations  of 
a  body  known  to  comprise  many  actual  sympathizers  wTith  the 
rebellion,  rank  secessionists  at  heart,  who  would  be  pleased  to 
carry  with  them  all  Egypt  into  the  Southern  Confederacy."1  A 

1  Quoted  in  an  editorial  in  the  State  Register,  Jan.  13. 

(432) 


49 

little  later,  the  Alton  Telegraph  expressed  itself  thus:.  "The 
action  of  our  state  Constitutional  Convention  is  most  strange 
and  unaccountable,  if  we  are  to  look  upon  them  as  a  body  of 
loyal  and  patriotic  men.  It  appears  to  be  their  constant  aim 
in  every  move  they  make  to  stir  up  the  most  bitter  and  unre 
lenting  party  strife.  *  *  *  If  the  men  who  constitute  the 
majority  of  the  Convention  are  sincere  in  their  professions  of 
loyalty  why  do  they  not  attend  strictly  to  the  duties  for  which 
they  were  elected?"1 

These  charges  were  taken  up  and  reiterated  by  other  Re 
publican  papers.  No  doubt  the  men  who  were  thus  voicing 
their  fears  were  honest  in  their  intentions;  for  the  assumption 
of  extreme  power  on  the  part  of  the  Convention  had  raised  the 
spectre  of  a  possible  conflict  of  authority  between  it  and  Gov 
ernor  Yates.  The  Chicago  Times,  however,  charged  that  there 
was  an  ulterior  motive  back  of  these  attacks.  It  said:  "Not 
a  single  article  of  the  proposed  constitution  has  been  fully 
adopted  by  the  Convention  *  *  *  yet  we  find  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  Republican  press  of  the  state,  led  by  the  reckless  and 
mischievous  morning  sheer-  of  this  city,  banded  in  a  violent 
warfare  against  the  constitution.  The  purpose  is  to  pre-excite 
the  public  mind  against  the  work  of  the  Convention;  *  *  * 
awaken  the  hostility  of  all  class  interests  whose  schemes  may 
be  affected  by  the  constitution,  and  induce  them  to  organize 
for  the  demolition  of  the  constitution  even  before  it  shall  be 
made."3 

On  February  II,  the  Chicago  Tribune  contained  the  follow 
ing  editorial:  "We  conclude  that  behind  all  that  the  public 
can  see,  deeper  than  anything  that  has  yet  been  avowed,  there 
is  a  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  managers  of  the  dominant  party 
in  the  Convention  to  embroil  the  state  in  a  domestic  quarrel, 
possibly  to  push  it  to  a  conflict  of  arms,  for  purposes  that  are 
not  friendly  to  the  Federal  government,  and  which  look  to  the 

1  Quoted  in  an  editorial  of  the  State  Journal,  Feb.  I. 

2  Chicago  Times,  editorial,  Feb.  9. 

(433) 


50 

aid  and  comfort  of  the  infamous  rebellion.  There  are  men  in 
that  Convention  who  would  not  hesitate  to  involve  our  people  in 
anarchy,  who  wait  only  the  favorable  moment  to  sieze  the  mili 
tary  power  of  the  state,  and  to  turn  the  arms  of  Illinois  upon 
the  flag  of  our  common  country.  There  is  one  there  known  to 
have  engaged  in  a  treasonable  correspondence  with  a  Kentucky 
rebel,  the  object  of  which  was  a  division  of  the  state  and  a  trans 
fer  of  its  southern  extremity  to  the  rebel  confederacy."  In  the 
same  edition  the  special  correspondent  at  Springfield,  Joe 
Forrest,  stated  that  it  was  rumored  that  "  a  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  Convention  were  members  of  the  Knights  of 
the  Golden  Circle." 

This  charge  at  once  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
members  of  the  convention.  Mr.  Thornton,  on  February  12, 
introduced  a  resolution  providing  for  a  special  committee, 
consisting  of  Messrs.  Ross,  Orme,  Terry,  and  Burr  to  investigate 
the  charges  and  report  to  the  convention.1  The  names  of  Mr. 
Thornton  and  Mr.  Pleasants  were  later  added  to  the  committee 
by  the  Convention.  In  the  discussion  of  the  above  resolution 
Mr.  Thornton  said:  "If  one  single  member  here  is  a  member  of 
that  order,  I  for  one  want  to  know  it,  and  if  so,  I  think  *  *  * 
such  a  one  should  be  expelled  from  this  body.  I  never  had  a 
thought  of  disloyalty  to  the  constitution  of  this  glorious  Union; 
and  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  such  a  sentiment  in  this 
Convention."2  Other  members  were  just  as  firm  in  their  as 
sertions  of  loyalty.  Mr.  Wentworth  said  he  did  not  believe 
there  were  any  disloyal  sentiments  in  the  Convention,  but  he 
insisted  that  the  reporter  for  the  Tribune3  was  honest  in  his 
belief  when  he  made  the  statement,  and  that  it  was  best  to 
have  the  matter  investigated.  * 

This  committee  spent  much  time  in  investigation,  called 
witnesses  from  various  parts  of  the  state,  traced  down  many 

1  Conv.  Journal,  p.  410. 

2  Debates  in  Const.  Conv.,  Feb.  12,  in  the  State  Register. 

3  Mr.  Jos.  R.  C.  Forrest. 

4  Debates  in  the  Const.  Conv.,  Feb.  12,  in  the  State  Register,  Feb.  13. 

(434) 


51 

rumors  of  disloyalty  only  to  find  that  there  was  really  nothing 
in  them.     It  was  found  that  the  charges  in  the  Tribune  were 
really  aimed  at  Mr.  Wilson.     The  correspondent  of  the  Tribune 
stated  in  his  testimony1  "that  a   lady  had  asserted  that  one 
member  held  a  commission  from  Jefferson  Davis  for  a  position 
in  the  rebel  army;  that  it  was  rumored  that  within  three  of  a 
majority  of  the  Convention  were  members  of  the  Knights  of 
the  Golden  Circle;  that  one  member  made  the  declaration  to  a 
friend,  that  the  Convention  was  'Slap-up/  which  as  interpreted 
by  Mr.  Forrest  was  the  watchword  of  the  order;  that  the  gov 
ernor  of  the  state  had  a  letter  proving  a  treasonable  corres 
pondence  on  the  part  of  one  member;  that  there  was  a  list  at 
the  United  States  marshal's  office  which  embraced  the  names 
of  the  secession  members."*     The  lady  referred  to  denied  any 
knowledge  of  the  statement  attributed  to  her.     The  governor 
asserted  his  firm  belief  that  the  member  of  the  Convention  re 
ferred  to  was  a  loyal   and  patriotic  citizen  and  that  he  could 
not  consent  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  committee.     The  United 
States  marshal  for  the  southern  district  of  Illinois  said  that  he 
had  never  communicated  to  any  person  any  information  as  to 
the  disloyalty  of  any  member  of  the  Convention  nor  did  he 
know  that  any  member  of  the  Convention  was  disloyal  to  the 
United  States  government.     "The  conclusion  reached  by  your 
committee  is,  that   the  various  rumors  as  to  members  of  the 
Convention  being  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  or  secessionists, 
or  implicated  in  any  manner  with  any  attempt  to  aid  the  re 
bellion,  or  thwart  the  United  States  government  to  maintain 
the  Union  and  preserve  the  constitution,  have  no  foundation. 
So  far  as  any  evidence  could  be  obtained,  there  was  none  to 
taint  the  loyalty,  or  impeach  the  patriotism  of  any  delegate. 
There  is  no  inclination  to  censure  the  reporter,  though  your 
committee  greatly  deprecate   any  attempt  to   dignify  vague 
rumor  into  serious  and  grave  charges." 3 

1  Conv.  Journal,  pp.  941-944. 

2  Conv.  Journal;  pp.  941-944. 
3 Conv.  Journal,  p.  943. 

(435) 


52 

Loyalty,  after  all,  is  very  often  a  matter  of  opinion.  There 
is  no  proof  that  any  member  of  the  convention  was  ever  openly 
disloyal.  They  all  protested  that  they  were  loyal  to  the  gen 
eral  government,  but  in  the  eyes  of  many  loyal  men  their 
action  was  in  effect  disloyal.  From  all  the  evidence  to  be 
obtained,  there  is  no  doubt  that  some  of  the  leaders  were 
opposed  to  the  war,  but  they  were  not  intentionally  doing  any 
thing  to  hinder  it.  Although  opposed  to  the  war  as  it  was 
being  conducted,  they  all  claimed  to  be,  and  probably  were,  in 
favor  of  suppressing  the  rebellion.  They  were  in  a  mood  to 
criticise  the  war  policy  of  the  federal  administration;  yet  they 
scarcely  did  this  distinctly,  except  in  cases  of  arbitrary  arrests 
for  disloyal  utterances.  They  were  too  Democratic  to  favor 
such  a  vast  extension  of  arbitrary  executive  power  as  was 
involved  in  a  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  and  the  erection  of  military  courts. 

The  radical  leaders  did  not  consider  loyalty  to  the  national 
government  to  include  loyalty  to  Governor  Yates  and  the  state 
military  department.  They  were  willing  to  go  almost  any 
length  to  embarrass  the  officers  of  the  state  and  they  desired 
the  adoption  of  a  state  constitution  that  would  enable  them  to 
reorganize  their  party  and  control  the  machinery  of  the  state 
government.  Their  policy  might  have  resulted  in  a  less  effici 
ent  support  to  the  national  government  in  some  of  the  crises 
of  the  war  and  so  have  endangered  the  success  of  the  Union 
arms.  Nevertheless,  we  have  no  proof  that  such  results  were 
deliberately  aimed  at  by  the  leaders  of  the  Convention. 


(436) 


53 


Vote  of  1860  and  the  proposed  senatorial  apportionment.  Shaded  areas  are  the 
counties  giving  Republican  majorities.  Unshaded  areas  are  the  counties  giving 
Democratic  majorities.  Heavy  lines  indicate  senatorial  district  lines.  Figures  show 
white  population  according  to  the  Census  of  1860. 

Outside  of  Cook  county  this  would  have  made  nineteen  out  of  the  thirty-three 
districts  safely  Democratic. 

(437) 


54 


Vote  on  the  constitution  as  a  whole. 

Shaded  areas  are  the  counties  giving  majorities  against  the  constitution. 

Unshaded  areas  are  the  counties  giving  majorities  for  the  constitution. 


(438) 


55 


Vote  on  the  negro  propositions. 

Horizontal  shading  indicates  majorities  against  proposition  No.  r;  vertical  shad 
ing  against  proposition  No.  2;  and  diagonal  shading  against  proposition   No.  3. 


(439) 


56 


Proposed  congressional  apportionment. 

Heavy  lines  show  district  boundaries.  Figures  show  white  population  according 
to  the  census  of  1860. 

Outside  of  Cook  county  this  would  have  made  seven  of  the  fourteen  districts 
safely  Democratic. 

(440) 


57 

VII. 
LIST  OF  AUTHOKITIES. 

SOURCES: 

Journal  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  Assembled  at  Springfield,  June  17, 
1847.  Springfield,  Illinois,  1847. 

Journal  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  convened  at  Springfield,  Jan.  7,  1862. 
Chas.  H.  Lanphier,  Printer,  Springfield,  Illinois,  1862. 

Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  22nd  General  Assembly,  regular 
session,  convened  Jan.  7,  1861.  Barthache  &  Baker,  Printers,  Springfield 
Illinois,  1861. 

Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  2ist  General  Assembly,  con 
vened  Jan.  3,  1859.  Barthache  &  Baker,  Printers,  Springfield,  Illinois,  1859. 

Journal  of  the  Senate  of  the  2ist  General  Assembly,  convened  Jan.  3,  1859. 
Springfield,  Illinois,  1859. 

Journal  of  the  Senate  of  the  22nd  General  Assembly,  convened  Jan.  7,  1859, 
Springfield,  Illinois,  1859. 

Proceedings  and  Debates  of  the  Virginia  State  Convention  of  1829-30.  Rich 
mond,  Virginia,  1830. 

Public  Laws  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  passed  by  the  22nd,  23rd  and  24th  General 
•  Assemblies.    Springfield,  Illinois,  1861-65. 

Smith,  William  Russell.  The  History  and  Debates  of  the  People  of  Alabama, 
begun  and  held  in  the  Citv  of  Montgomery,  the  seventh  day  of  January, 
1861.  Montgomery,  Alabama,  1861. 

Chicago  Daily  Journal,  1861-1862. 

Chicago  Daily  Times,  1861-1862. 

Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  1861-1862. 

Illinois  State  Register,  daily,  1862,  contains  entire  proceedings  of  the  Consti 
tutional  Convention.  Springfield,  Illinois. 

Illinois  State  Journal,  daily,  1862  contains  entire  proceedings  of  the  Consti 
tutional  Convention.  Springfield,  Illinois. 

Champaign  Weekly  Gazette,  1861-2.    Champaign,  Illinois. 

Urbana  Weekly  Democrat.    Urbana,  Illinois. 

The  Daily  Pantagraph,  1861-2.   Bloomington,  Illinois. 

New  York  Times,  daily.     New  York. 
SECONDARY  SOURCES: 

American  Annual  Cyclopedia  and  register  of  important  events,  volumes  I  and 

2.    D.  Appleton  &  Company,  New  York. 
^Anthony,  Elliott,  Constitutional  History  of  Illinois.    Chicago,  1891. 

Davidson,  Alexander  and  Stuve,  Bernard.  Complete  History  of  Illinois,  from 
1673  to  1884.  Springfield,  Illinois,  1884. 

Eddy,  T.  M.,  The  Patriotism  of  Illinois,  a  civil  and  military  history  of  the  state 
during  the  Civil  War.  Clarke  &  Company,  Chicago,  1865. 

Encyclopedia  of  Biography  of  Illinois.  Century  Publishing  Company,  Chicago, 
1892. 

Jameson,  John  Alexander.     The  Constitutional  Convention,  its  history,  powers, 

/ 

(440 


58 

and  modes  of  proceeding.     Charles  Scribner  &  Company,  New  York,  1867. 
Lusk,  D.    W.    Politics  and    Politicians,  a  succinct    history  of  the    politics   of 

Illinois  from  1856  to  1884.      Springfield,  1884. 
Moses,  John.  Illinois,  Historical  and  Statistical,  comprising  the  essential  facts 

of   its   growth  as    a  province,  county,   territory,   and  state.      2   volumes, 
1316  p.    Fergus  Printing  Company,  Chicago,  1892. 
United  States  Biographical  Dictionary  and    Portrait  Gallery  of  Eminent  Men 

— Illinois  Volume,  American  Biographical  Publishing  Co.,  Chicago,  1883. 


442) 


Untoersttp  of  flltnote 


Vol  I  MAY,  1905  No.  10 


tutae0 


The   Progress  of  Labor    Organization   Among 

Women,  Together  with  Some  Considerations 

Concerning  Their  Place  in  Industry 


By 


BELVA  MARY  HERRQN,  B.  L 


PRICE    ONE    DOLLAR 


CONTENTS 


I.     Introduction :     Women  in  the  earlier  labor  movements  in  the 

United  States. 
II.     Women  in  the  principal  labor  organizations  affiliated  with  the 

American  Federation  of  Labor  : — 

1.  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union. 

2.  Typographical  Union. 

3.  Brotherhood  of  Bookbinders. 

4.  United  Garment  Workers'  Union. 

5.  Ladies'  Garment  Workers'  Union. 

6.  United  Textile  Workers'  Union. 

7.  Glove  Workers'  Union. 

8.  Cigar  Makers'  Union. 

9.  Potters'  Union. 

10.  Commercial  Telegraphers'  Union. 

11.  Shirt,  Waist  and  Laundry  Workers'  Union. 

12.  Bakery  and  Confectionery  Employees'  Union. 

13.  Building  Employees'  Union. 

14.  Meat  Cutters'  and  Butchers'  Union. 

15.  Teachers'  Federation  of  Chicago. 

16.  Women's  Union  Label  League. 

17.  Women's  Trade  Union  League. 

18.  Women's  Trade  Unions  in  Great  Britain. 

19.  General  considerations. 


I.     INTRODUCTION 

WOMEN  IN  THE  EARLIER  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

That  women  have  taken  some  part  in  the  strikes  and 
agitation  of  the  earlier  days  of  the  labor  movement  is  not  to 
be  doubted,  but  the  probable  results  of  a  serious  study  of  their 
activities  are  so  slight  in  comparison  with  the  exertions  re 
quired  that  this  investigation  has  been  confined  to  the  era  of 
Unionism  beginning  with  the  late  eighties.  The  following  bits 
of  information  may  be  of  interest,  however,  as  suggestive  of 
general  conditions  in  earlier  times.1  Between  1815  and  1830 
the  textile  industry  of  the  country  was  passing  out  of  the 
home  into  the  factory  and  women  and  children  who  had  been 
the  chief  workers  under  the  old  household  system  followed  the 
trade  into  the  mills.  For  the  first  few  years  the  cotton  man 
ufacturers  in  New  England  made  unusual  efforts  to  establish 
in  their  mills  such  good  moral  and  physical  surroundings  that 
respectable  girls  would  be  attracted  thither  from  their  country 
homes;  this  was  especially  necessary  because  of  the  rumors  of 
disgraceful  conditions  in  the  English  factories  which  had 
reached  this  country  and  roused  a  feeling  against  the  new 
system  of  industry.  The  fairly  comfortable  ways  of  living 
secured  by  the  care  of  the  employers,  together  with  the  pros 
pect  of  earning  money  and  the  attraction  of  town  as  compared 
with  country  life,  were  effective  in  bringing  into  the  mills  that 
intelligent  class  of  girls  whose  industry,  attractive  address,  and 
literary  ambitions  were  the  subject  of  so  much  admiring  com 
ment  from  both  American  and  English  visitors.  That  all  of 
the  surplus  energies  of  these  thrifty  Yankee  maidens  should 

1  The  sources  of  this  information  are  the  following  bocks:  First  Report  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor,  1870;  Wright,  C.  D.  Industrial  Evolution  of  the 
United  States,  McNeill,  G.  E.  Labor  Movement;  New  Jersey  Bureau  of  Labor, 
Tenth  Report,  1887;  American  Journal  of  Sociology  3:  133  etc.  Also  an  interview 
with  Mr.  McNeill. 

(445) 


have  been  spent  on  literary  clubs  and  papers,  rather  than  in 
efforts  to  better  their  industrial  position  is  not  strange,  for  they 
were,  on  the  whole,  contented  with  their  low  wages,  which  left 
a  small  margin  every  month  to  be  hoarded  for  the 
trousseau  or  for  paying  off  the  mortgage  on  the  family  farm; 
moreover,  they  came  from  country  homes  untouched  by  the 
labor  agitation  which  was  causing  uneasiness  in  a  few  cities. 
Unhappily  the  days  of  Lucy  Larcom  and  the  "Lowell  Offering" 
were  only  a  transient  phase  of  American  factory  life;  the  Irish 
immigrants,  present  in  small  numbers  from  the  first,  became  a 
larger  and  larger  factor  in  mill  labor  as  the  years  went  on, 
pushing  out  the  native  American  with  his  higher  standard  of 
living  and  accomplishing  by  the  later  forties  an  almost  com 
plete  substitution  of  Irish  for  native  workers.  Even  during 
this  period  there  was  considerable  dissatisfaction  with  indust 
rial  conditions  among  wage  earners  and  organizations  were 
formed  for  shortening  hours  and  raising  wages.  From  1830  to 
1835  the  general  unrest  expressed  itself  in  numerous  strikes, 
in  which  female  employees  often  took  part,  but  in  the  general 
agitation  in  the  interests  of  labor  from  1825  to  1850  women 
apparently  had  little  share.  Labor  newspapers  were  estab 
lished;  conventions  were  held  at  which  large  questions  affect 
ing  labor  in  a  more  or  less  general  way  were  discussed,  and 
political  organizations  and  alliances  with  existing  parties  were 
formed.  Most  of  these  meetings  and  organizations  were  quite 
beyond  the  sphere  of  women's  interests,  but  that  there  was 
some  participation  in  the  activities  is  shown  by  the  presence 
of  Sarah  Bagley  as  a  delegate  of  the  Female  Labor  Reform 
Association  of  Lowell,  at  the  First  Industrial  Congress  in  the 
United  States,  in  1845.  A  number  of  women  were  active  in 
the  ten  hour  movement'in  Massachusetts,  which  was  begun  in 
the  same  year  and  resulted,  after  a  long  struggle,  in  the  Act  of 
1874,  limiting  the  working  day  of  women  and  children  in  fac 
tories  to  ten  hours.  Mr.  George  McNeill  is  responsible  for  the 
statement  that  after  1845  the  activity  of  the  working  women 
themselves  died  out. 

(446) 


The  early  organization  of  the  boot  and  shoe  workers,  the 
Knights  of  St.  Crispin,  had  auxiliaries  among  the  women, 
known  as  the  "  Ladies  of  St.  Crispin."  The  Knights  of  Labor, 
in  1879,  two  years  after  their  organization,  at  their  third 
General  Assembly,  discussed  a  resolution  to  admit  women  and 
to  form  assemblies  for  them  on  the  same  conditions  as  men; 
but  the  motion  failed  the  two-thirds  vote  necessary  for  amend 
ing  the  constitution.  At  the  next  session  the  General  As 
sembly  passed  the  resolution  and  appointed  a  committee  to 
form  a  ritual  for  the  government  of  women's  assemblies,  but 
the  report  of  this  committee  was  not  made  the  following  year 
and  the  Master  Workman  decided  that  they  should  be  ad 
mitted  on  an  equality  with  men.  This  action  was  taken  at  the 
same  meeting  at  which  it  was  decided  to  make  public  the  name 
and  principles  of  the  organization,  that  is,  at  a  time  when  a 
more  rational  and  stable  basis  of  the  Union  was  agreed  upon. 

The  liberal  policy  of  the  Knights  was  not  at  once  followed 
by  other  organizations;  indeed,  the  attitude  of  both  British  and 
American  Unions  toward  the  women  in  their  trades  had  been 
until  recent  years  far  from  generous,  but  this  conduct  is  easily 
explained  upon  the  premise  of  ordinary  human  nature  on  the 
part  of  the  Unionists,  for  women  have  often  entered  the  field  of 
competition  with  men  under  circumstances  that  were  particu 
larly  trying.  In  many  trades  they  have  been  introduced  at  less 
than  a  "living  wage,"  after  the  men  by  strenuous  efforts  have 
succeeded  in  establishing  and  maintaining  standard  rates  and 
when  their  employment  had  been  simply  a  means  of  escape 
from  such  a  scale.  Sometimes  they  have  been  employed  to 
break  a  strike  and  have  so  incurred  the  hatred  felt  for  all 
"scabs."  Again,  they  have  entered  a  trade  together  with  new 
machinery  as  a  substitute  for  trained  laborers  and  have  become 
the  object  of  that  same  very  natural,  if  not  very  reasonable, 
dislike  felt  for  the  machines  themselves.  Thus  as  a  weapon  in 
the  hands  of  the  employer  and  as  a  factor  in  the  new  and  cheap 
methods  which  the  skilled  workman  despises  and  dreads,  wom- 

(447) 


6 

en's  work  has  roused  considerable  antagonism  on  the  part  of 
wage  earning  men,  whether  in  the  Unions  or  not.     Strengthen 
ing  these  direct  and  personal  motives  has  existed  the  general 
disapproval  of  wives  and  daughters  going  outside  the  home  to 
work.     This  feeling  is,  however,  disappearing  as  Trade  Union 
ists  recognize  the  inevitableness  of  women's  becoming  a  per 
manent  part  of  the  present  system  of  industry.     Nearly  all 
Unions  now  pursue  the  policy  of  bringing  the  women  of  the 
trade  into  the  organization  and  thus  making  them  a  manage 
able  and  measurable  factor  in  negotiations  with  employers. 
This  change  in  attitude  has  taken  place  in  both  British  and 
American  Unions,  but  that  the  conversion  has  not  been  com 
plete  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  some  organizations  still  prohibit 
their  members  from  working  in  shops  where  women  are  em 
ployed1.     In  1899  the  Boston  Core  Makers  threatened  to  strike 
on  account  of  the  employment  of  girls;  and  the  constitution  of 
the  Upholsterers  forbids  the  members  to  work  where  girls  are 
employed  otherwise  than   as  seamstresses.     These  conditions 
are  exceptional  and  the  great  majority  of  American  Unions 
connected  with  trades  in  which  wromen  are  employed  provide 
for  admitting  them  upon  the  same  terms  as  men.     In  some 
cases,  to  be  sure,  lower  dues  and  benefits  are  the  rule,  as  in  the 
organizations  of  the  Bookbinders,  the  Potters,  and  the  Clerks. 
Within  the  "Nationals"  or  "Internationals"  women  are  either 
in  separate  or  mixed  locals;  the  ordinary  arrangement  is  that 
separate  locals  are  formed  for  the  main  divisions  of  the  trade, 
and  since  women's  work  is  to  a  good  degree  distinct  from 
men's,  their  Unions  are  practically  women's  organizations. 


1  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  17:  247,  323. 

(448) 


II.     WOMEN  IN  THE  PRINCIPAL  LABOK  ORGANIZA 
TIONS  AFFILIATED  WITH  THE  AMERICAN 
FEDERATION  OF  LABOR 

THE  BOOT  AND  SHOE  WORKERS'  UNION 

The  boot  and  shoe  trade  of  the  United  States  is  an  industry 
of  considerable  significance,  not  only  because  it  supplies  a  ne 
cessity  of  civilized  life  to  our  75,000,000  population,  but  also 
because  of  the  excellence  of  the  product,  which  has  been  recog 
nized  the  world  over,  and  has  created  a  large  export  trade.  IH 
1900  the  total  value  of  the  product  was  $261,000,000,  ^nd  the 
number  of  persons  employed  was  142,920.  The  gradual  intro 
duction  of  marvelously  effective  machines  together  with  a 
minute  subdivision  of  labor  has  reduced  the  cost  of  the  product 
and  revolutionized  the  character  of  the  tasks  involved.  The 
traditional  shoe  maker  has  been  supplanted,  not  by  a  set  of 
unskilled  laborers,  but  by  a  whole  series  of  workers,  ranging 
in  equipment  of  intelligence  and  dexterity  from  the  heedless 
lad  of  fourteen  who  fills  the  heeling  machine  with  pegs  to  the 
skilled  cutter  upon  whose  nicety  of  judgment  will  depend  the 
profit  of  a  pair  of  shoes.  These  changes  in  processes  have  nat 
urally  brought  into  the  trade  a  larger  number  of  women  and 
children;  for  while  many  of  the  machines  still  require  attend 
ants  who  have  strength  and  skill,  the  tendency  of  invention  is 
to  simplify  tasks.  To  a  considerable  extent  women  have  taken 
the  place  of  men  in  operating  the  lighter  machines,  while  chil 
dren  now  perform  the  work  that  women  were  doing  heretofore; 
and,  since  a  larger  part  of  the  work  is  done  by  these  cheaper 
classes  of  workers,  a  reduction  of  total  wages  paid  has  neces 
sarily  followed.  These  considerations  partly  explain  the  fact 


Twelfth  Census:  Manufactures,  3:  760. 

(449) 


8 

that  in  the  decade  from  1890-1900  the  number  of  wage  earners 
increased  6.9  per  cent  and  the  value  of  products  18.3  per  cent, 
while  the  total  wages  decreased  2.5  per  cent,  although  the  pur 
chase  of  a  larger  part  of  the  stock  of  soles  must  also  be  recognized 
as  accounting  for  some  of  this  apparent  decline.  The  proportion 
of  men  in  the  trade  fell  from  68.4  per  cent  in  1890  to  63.8  per 
cent  in  1900;  women  rose  from  29.8  to  33  per  cent  and  children 
from  1.8  per  cent  to  3.2  per  cent.  In  Massachusetts  the  em 
ployment  of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  has  remained 
practically  stationary,  owing  to  the  better  enforcement  of  laws 
and  to  the  feeling  against  child  labor  in  that  State.  But  while 
women  are  slowly  encroaching  upon  the  men's  field  of  work? 
there  is  little  direct  competition  between  the  sexes  at  any  given 
time,  and  the  most  recent  innovation  noticed  by  a  visitor  to 
the  factories  is  the  employment  of  Jewish  and  Armenian  men 
in  the  women's  domain. 

The  delimitation  of  women's  work  in  boot  and  shoe  mak 
ing  is  fairly  clear  and  may  be  briefly  described.  The  manage 
ment  of  stock,  consideration  of  models  and  cutting  of  leather 
and  lining  are  tasks  of  skilled  men,  who  work  in  the  quiet  of  a 
room  where  there  is  little  machinery;  the  numerous  parts  of 
the  upper,  tied  into  methodically  arranged  bundles,  pass  to  the 
fitting  room,  where  linings  are  glued  to  outers,  edges  are  bev 
eled,  buttonholes  or  eyelets  made  and  the  parts  are  sewed 
together  to  form  a  complete  upper.  In  the  ordinary  shop  this 
work  is  done  by  women  entirely.  The  processes  vary  in  the  skill 
required  from  the  simple  pasting  together  of  bits  of  cloth  and 
leather  to  the  nice  task  of  vamping,  that  is,  sewing  vamps  to 
uppers  without  guide  lines.  In  the  last  division  of  the  work  is 
comprised  the  making  of  the  sole  and  heel — which  has  been 
blocked  out  in  the  cutting  room — and  the  fastening  of  the 
uppers  to  the  sole,  or  lasting.  These  tasks  are  carried  on 
through  elaborate  processes  by  means  of  complicated  machines, 
in  the  management  of  which  strength  and  skill  are  required, 
and  hence  they  are  unsuited  to  women's  capacities.  Women 

(450) 


9 

are  not  considered  as  possibilities  in  the  cutting  room;  although 
in  the  stress  of  some  peculiar  labor  difficulties  one  or  two  were 
tried  in  one  of  the  Massachusetts  factories  last  year;  lacking 
experience,  they  were  naturally  not  successful.  The  impor 
tance  of  the  cutter's  skill  is  easily  realized  when  one  remembers 
that  by  a  slight  carelessness  in  laying  his  patterns,  he  may 
waste  more  than  his  day's  wages. 

According  to  the  report  of  those  who  had  lived  there  for 
years,  social  conditions  in  the  shoe  towns  of  Massachusetts  are 
healthy  and  encouraging.  An  intelligent  Lynn  woman,  who 
had  been  one  of  the  factory  girls  and  had  continued  to  take  a 
great  interest  in  their  welfare,  thinks  that  there  is  no  place 
where  there  are  so  few  social  discriminations  made  against  the 
factory  operatives  and  where  she  may  lead  as  interesting  and 
pleasant  a  life  outside  of  factory  hours.  Other  persons  cited 
instances  of  the  girls  passing  from  the  work  room  to  the  desk 
of  the  accountant  or  the  schoolmistress  by  means  of  the  train 
ing  of  the  night  schools.  In  Brockton  Union  officials  told  of 
the  quite  common  practice  among  the  operatives  of  buying 
homes  by  installments;  in  order  to  do  this  the  husband  is  often 
aided  by  his  wife,  who  goes  into  the  factory  and  earns  enough 
to  support  the  family  while  his  wages  are  applied  to  the  pur 
chase  of  the  house.  In  Chicago,  wages  are  good  but  are  men 
aced  by  the  competition  of  smaller  towns;  this  fact  led — at  the 
close  of  a  recent  strike— to  the  making  of  contracts  without 
the  provision  for  insurance  against  strikes  and  the  use  of  the 
label.  The  Union  people  felt  that  they  might  lose  by  arbitra 
tion  in  which  rates  in  the  competing  towns  were  considered 
and  the  employers  were  indifferent  to  the  advertisement  of  the 
label.  Nine  tenths  of  the  Chicago  women  shoe  workers  are 
said  to  be  in  the  Union  and  among  them  are  some  experienced 
and  wise  leaders.  Statistics  of  the  number  of  married  women 
in  the  trade  were  not  obtainable. 

The  records  of  the  earlier  organizations  of  the  boot  and 
shoe  operatives  are  difficult  to  obtain  and  of  little  significance 
in  our  study.  Hence  we  pass  them  over  and  take  up  the  Boot 

(450 


10 

and  Shoe  Workers'  Union,  which  was  organized  in  1889  and 
practically  reorganized,  upon  the  Lasters'  becoming  amalga 
mated  with  it,  in  1895.  At  this  time  there  took  place  a  stren 
uous  contest  concerning  the  rival  policies  of  low  or  high  dues 
and  benefits;  the  low-dues  policy  won,  and  ten  cents  a  week 
with  no  benefits  was  determined  upon  as  a  financial  basis  of 
the  organization.  In  1899,  a  new  constitution  was  adopted 
which  provided  for  twenty  five  cents'  weekly  dues,  two  thirds 
of  it  to  go  to  the  general  treasury,  and  prohibited  the  introduc 
tion  of  lower  dues.1  A  sick  benefit  of  $5.00  a  week  after  the 
first  week,  a  death  benefit  of  $50.00,  or  $100.00  after  two  years' 
membership,  and  a  strike  benefit  of  $4.00  a  week  after  the  first 
seven  days,  are  provided  for.2  Since  the  introduction  of  the 
policy  of  high  dues  and  benefits  the  organization  has  had  a 
most  encouraging  growth;  the  membership,  receipts  and  num 
ber  of  locals  have  doubled  during  the  year  1902 3;  and  during 
the  biennium,  1902-1904,  the  number  of  label  factories  has  in 
creased  by  71  and  the  number  of  members  by  15,982.*  This  de 
velopment  has  occurred  in  the  face  of  very  trying  difficulties 
with  local  independent  Unions  that  have  refused  to  come  into 
the  general  organization  and  have  done  much  to  hinder  its 
progress. 

In  spite  of  the  declaration  in  the  preamble  to  the  constitu 
tion  in  favor  of  the  final  abolition  of  the  wage  system  and  of 
the  collective  ownership  by  the  people  of  the  means  of  produc 
tion,  distribution,  etc.,  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union  is  a 
conservative  body.  The  watchword  of  the  president  and  of  the 
treasurer  is  "maintain  our  contracts"  and  the  large  expense  in 
curred  in  carrying  into  effect  this  policy  is  a  proof  of  their  sin 
cerity.  Not  only  in  the  emphasis  laid  upon  sound  finance,  but 
also  in  other  phases  of  general  policy  there  is  manifested  a  nice 

1  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  17:52. 

2  Constitution  of  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers,  1902. 
8  American  Federationist,  Jan.,  1903. 

4  Proceedings  of  Sixth  Convention,  21. 

(452) 


11 

sense  of  proportion  in  estimating  the  importance  of  the  various 
elements  of  Trade  Union  activity;  the  necessity  of  attending 
first  to  the  poorest  paid  laborers,  its  insistence  upon  better  sys 
tem  of  work  in  factories  so  that  laborers  may  not  lose  time  and 
temper  in  waiting  for  work,  the  avoidence  of  strikes  for  small 
causes,  all  point  to  a  high  degree  of  business  sagacity  upon  the 
part  of  the  Union  officers. 

According  to  the  President's  estimate,  one  fifth  of  the 
members  of  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union  are  women. 
A  comparison  of  the  history  of  the  local  Unions  in  which  men 
or  women  predominate  would  be  of  little  significance  owing  to 
the  policy  of  the  Union  in  granting  the  label.  Contracts  are 
made  with  employers,  according  to  which,  in  return  for  the  use 
of  the  union  stamp  and  a  pledge  upon  the  part  of  the  Union  to 
refrain  from  strikes,  they  employ  only  union  laborers,  and  re 
fer  questions  of  wages,  etc.,  to  arbitration.1  When  this  agree 
ment  goes  into  effect,  of  course  all  employes  in  the  given  fac 
tory  must  become  members  of  the  Union.  Now,  even  in  the 
factories  where  women's  shoes  are  made  the  male  operatives 
far  outnumber  the  women,  and  the  women's  opinion  upon  the 
unionization  of  the  factory  needs  to  be  considered  only  after 
the  conversion  of  the  employer  and  the  male  workers,  and  is 
not  a  matter  of  prime  importance.  In  like  manner  the  growth 
of  a  local  Union  composed  largely  of  women  may  not  indicate 
any  activity  upon  the  part  of  the  women,  but  merely  the  fact 
that  the  general  Union  has  been  able  to  convince  the  employer 
that  increased  sales  due  to  the  label  and  freedom  from  strikes 
are  worth  what  is  asked  for  them. 

The  welfare  of  women  workers  is  well  provided  for  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union.  One  of  the 
objects  of  the  organization  is  stated  to  be  the  establishment  of 
"uniform  wages  regardless  of  sex";  conditions  of  membership 
are  exactly  the  same  for  both;  any  male  or  female  over  sixteen 

1  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  17:109;  Report  of  the  Sixth  Convention  of 
the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union,  19. 

(453) 


12 

actively  engaged  in  the  craft  is  eligible,  and  fees  and  benefits 
are  identical.1  That  this  policy  is  carried  out  honestly  by  the 
Union  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  and  there  appears  to  be  no 
friction  among  the  Union  members  because  of  sex.  As  has 
been  pointed  out,  there  is  little  direct  competition  between  the 
men  and  women  at  any  given  time.  While  there  is  no  provis 
ion  for  separate  locals  for  the  women,  in  the  large  shoe  towns, 
where  the  trade  is  to  a  good  degree  unionized,  they  are  practi 
cally  segregated  by  the  practice  of  organizing  a  local  for  each 
department.  For  instance,  in  Brockton  there  are  ten  or  twelve 
locals;  of  these  the  stitchers  and  vampers  organization  is  over 
whelmingly  feminine;  the  stitchers  number  twenty  five  hun 
dred.  Lynn  is  not  nearly  so  well  organized  and  out  of  the  five 
locals  only  one,  the  stitchers,  consists  almost  wholly  of  women. 
These  women  belonged  to  a  ''mixed  local" — one  made  up  of 
workmen  doing  quite  different  tasks — until  a  year  ago,  when 
they  formed  a  separate  body  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  mem 
bers.  Naturally  in  these  women's  Unions  the  members  feel  much 
more  free  in  discussing  Union  affairs  than  they  are  in  the  pres 
ence  of  the  men.  They  are  likely  to  elect  women  officers,  but 
it  is  worthy  of  note  that  of  the  four  paid  agents  of  the  Brockton 
Stitchers  only  one  is  a  woman.  Whether  the  women  of  the 
local  had  greater  confidence  in  the  financial  ability  of  men  or 
whether  there  were  no  women  competent  for  the  places  is  not 
clear;  from  this  same  local  there  were  sent  to  the  convention 
of  1904  six  men  as  representatives. 

Of  the  interest  of  women  in  the  affairs  of  the  organization 
it  is  difficult  to  judge;  the  women  and  girls  whom  the  writer 
met  were  in  most  cases  leaders,  and  were  firmly  convinced  of 
the  efficacy  of  the  organization  as  an  ameliorating  influence  in 
their  lives.  But  all  complained  of  the  indifference  of  the  ma 
jority  of  the  women,  accusing  them  of  frivolity  and  of  short 
sightedness  in  not  perceiving  that  their  fair  wages  and  other 
benefits  were  the  result  of  Union  efforts,  in  return  for  which 
they  must  make  some  sacrifice.  Their  attendance  upon  meet- 

1  Constitution,  1902.     Sections  44,  52,  53,  68,  69,  etc. 

(454) 


18 

ings  may  be  taken  as  an  indication  of  the  degree  of  the  active 
interest  of  the  women  in  their  locals.  One  Union  of  twenty 
five  hundred  members  reported  fifty  as  the  average  attendance; 
but  the  secretary  said  in  a  personal  interview  that  the  number 
necessary  for  a  quorum,  thirteen,  was  not  always  present. 
Fifty  was  given  as  the  average  for  two  locals  of  about  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  each,  and  ten  for  one  of  two  hundred.  These 
figures  are  for  several  of  the  great  shoe  towns  of  Massachusetts 
and  are  probably  typical.  Attendance  of  men  is  proportion 
ally  much  larger,  but  too  much  stress  must  not  be  laid  upon 
the  contrast,  for  attendance  involves  for  the  women  the  sur 
mounting  of  greater  obstacles,  such  as  home  cares,  unusual 
fatigue,  and  fear  of  the  perils  of  the  night. 

The  interest  shown  in  buying  Union  label  goods  is  not 
encouraging  in  Brockton,  a  completely  unionized  town.  Union 
officials  declared  that  non-label  shoes  were  sold  in  every  store 
in  town  and  that  a  like  condition  existed  with  regard  to  other 
goods.  This  indifference  can  not  be  charged  to  women  more 
than  to  men,  except  in  so  far  as  they  dispose  of  the  larger  part 
of  the  family  income. 

Another  indication  of  women's  interest  in  the  Union  is 
their  representation  in  the  general  convention  and  the  part 
they  take  in  its  deliberations;  at  the  convention  of  1904  there 
were  one  hundred  and  ninety  delegates,  of  whom  sixteen  were 
women;  this  is  a  proportion  of  8.4  per  cent,  while  according  to 
the  statement  of  the  president  about  twenty  per  cent  are 
women.  On  the  seven  committees  of  nine  persons  each,  seven 
members  were  women,  or  eleven  per  cent  of  the  whole.  They 
are  represented  on  all  of  the  committees  except  that  on  appeals 
and  grievances  and  that  on  the  constitution,  two  of  the  most 
important.  There  is  one  woman  on  the  executive  board  of 
eleven  and  there  are  one  or  two  women  organizers.  One  of  the 
first  matters  for  consideration  in  this  convention  was  the  un 
favorable  report  upon  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  constitu 
tion,  providing  for  reduced  dues  for  women.1  Upon  this  sub- 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Sixth  Convention,  p.  41. 

(455) 


14 

ject  four  of  the  women  spoke  vigorously  in  favor  of  retaining 
the  high  dues.  Upon  other  subjects  two  or  three  spoke  several 
times  during  the  convention,  usually  upon  some  subject  that 
concerned  women's  interests,  and  always  in  favor  of  the  con 
servative  line  of  action. 

In  the  judgment  of  the  President  of  the  Boot  and  Shoe 
Workers,  whose  opinion  is  important  on  account  of  his  experi 
ence  in  dealing  with  them,  women  members  of  the  Unions  pre 
sent  no  special  problems  and  are  not  particularly  different  in 
disposition  from  the  men;  they  are  normal  but  somewhat  dif 
ferentiated  units  in  the  organization;  they  have  little  influence 
as  factors  in  molding  the  general  policy  of  the  Union,  and  are 
not  leaders  in  active  general  work;  but  they  are  sensible  and 
likely  to  be  "on  the  right  side."  One  interesting  observation 
made  by  this  official  was  that  it  is  harder  to  induce  women  to 
compromise  than  men;  they  want  the  exact  thing  they  have 
asked  for  and  nothing  less;  hence,  in  strikes  they  want  to  hold 
out  to  the  bitter  end.  They  are  hard  to  convince  of  an  error 
and  likely  to  see  only  the  details  of  a  question — but  he  added 
"so  are  many  of  the  men." 

In  so  far  as  concerns  women  in  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Work 
ers'  Union,  then,  we  would  seem  warranted  in  drawing  the  fol 
lowing  conclusions: 

(1)  Conditions   are   favorable   for  organizing  them  and 
holding  them  in  the  organization  because  the  policy  of  grant 
ing  the  label  to  manufacturers  who  employ  only  Union  labor, 
together  with  the  fact  that  men  predominate  in  all  shops,  prac 
tically  forces  the  women  in  a  given  factory  to  join  the  Union. 

(2)  Wages  in  the  trade  are  in  most  places  comparatively 
high.1 

(3)  While  women  are  slightly  encroaching  upon  men's 

1  In  the  stitching  room  one  half  of  the  women  receive  from  $10.50  to  $10.99  and 
over,  three  fourths  from  $8.$o  to  $8.99  and  over,  and  one  fourth  above  $12.50  to  $12.99. 
In  Lynn  Union  vampers  make  $18.00  a  week  in  busy  season  and  $12.00  when  very 
dull;  other  stitchers  get  from  $9.00  to  $12.00.  These  figures  indicate  the  possibility 
of  a  high  standard  of  living  and  a  spirit  of  independence  which  makes  organization 
less  difficult. — Twelfth  Census,  Employees  and  Wages,  570. 

(456) 


15 

work,  yet  there  is  no  great  amount  of  direct  competition  and 
no  feeling  that  women  are  a  menace  to  men's  standard  of  wages; 
this  condition  favors  cordial  relations  between  the  sexes  and 
makes  the  women  less  suspicios  of  an  organization  in  which 
men  predominate. 

(4)  The  policy  of  equal  and  high  dues  and  benefits,  which 
for  a  time  was  opposed  by  women,  has  finally  roused  a  sense  of 
the  power  and  importance  of  the  Union. 

(5)  Women  take  an  active  part  in  management  of  some 
locals,  especially  where  there  are  female  officers;  but  officials 
complain  of  the  indifference  of  the  majority. 

(6)  They  are  not  a  directing  force  in  the  activities  of 
conventions  but  are  intelligent  and  conservative  when  they  do 
express  themselves. 

THE  TYPOGRAPHICAL  UNION 

Printing  establishments  are  of  two  classes,  quite  distinct  in 
organization,  machinery,  hours  of  labor,  and  wages;  they  are 
the  newspaper  and  periodical,  and  the  book  and  job  offices.  On 
all  counts  but  number  of  employees  and  wages  the  newspapers 
and  periodicals  are  about  twice  as  important  as  the  book  and 
job  trade.  But  for  the  student  of  women's  work  the  newspaper 
office  is  of  little  interest,  because  of  the  overwhelming  prepon 
derance  of  men.  There  are  a  few  women  employed  on  news 
papers  in  the  large  cities  as  machine  operators  or  proof  read 
ers;  in  smaller  towns  they  set  up  straight  matter  but  are  never 
employed  as  a  "  make  up  "  or  in  the  "  ad  room."  Women  press 
feeders  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  International  Printing 
Pressmen. 

In  1900,  there  were,  in  the  newspaper  and  periodical  of 
fices,  73,658  men,  earning  nearly  $45,000,000;  and  14,815  women, 
earning  $4,600,000,  a  ratio  of  something  less  than  five  to  one  in 
favor  of  the  men.  During  the  decade  1890-1900  there  was  a 
much  greater  increase  among  the  women  than  among  men, 

(457) 


16 

suggesting  that  competition  had  led  to  a  search  for  cheaper 
labor.1  Comprehensive  figures  for  the  percentage  of  women  in 
book  and  job  offices  are  entirely  wanting,  but  according  to 
estimates  of  employers  and  wage  earners  the  proportion  of 
women  is  between  two-thirds  and  one-half  of  the  total.  Of  the 
9,045  workers  upon  the  linotype  machine,  520  were  women. 
A  large  proportion  of  these  machines  are  in  newspaper  offices 
and  a  partial  explanation  of  the  small  number  of  female  oper 
ators  in  this  class  of  work  is  found  in  the  necessity  for  night 
work  on  all  morning  papers.  Besides,  the  rush  and  strain  of 
this  business  make  it  little  suitable  for  female  labor.  In  Bos 
ton,  on  two  or  three  evening  papers,  women  are  employed  on 
the  linotype  at  the  same  wages  as  men,  according  to  Union 
scale,  $22.26  for  seven  and  one  half  hours  per  day  or  42  hours 
per  week.3  This  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  president  of  the 
Typographical  Union  testified  before  the  Industrial  Commission 
that  women  had  not  the  mental  and  physical  endurance  to 
maintain  for  any  time  the  speed  made  by  men. 

In  considering  the  division  of  labor  between  men  and 
women  in  the  printing  trade,  the  most  significant  fact  is  one 
that  does  not  appear  in  a  description  of  the  processes;  it  is  the 
custom,  or  unwritten  law,  that  women  enter  the  trade  as  regu 
lar  workers,  receiving  regular  pay  after  six  weeks'  tuition  in 
type-setting,  while  men  serve  an  apprenticeship  of  four  years; 
this  means  of  course  that  women  learn  merely  setting  up  plain 
matter,  while  men  go  through  a  curriculum  made  up  of  all  the 
processes  of  the  trade.  This  places  the  two  classes  upon  funda 
mentally  different  bases.  If  the  man  fails  to  find  work  in  one 
department,  he  has  the  chance  of  turning  to  another;  as  oppor 
tunity  offers  he  can  pass  from  the  lower  to  higher  grades  of 
work  with  increasing  remuneration.  Moreover,  as  an  all  round 
workman,  he  is  worth  more  to  his  employer,  for  he  can  be 

twelfth  Census,  Manufactures,  3:  1044. 

*Ibid.  1 1 06. 

3Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  17:260. 

(458) 


17 

turned  from  one  kind  of  work  to  another  as  occasion  demands. 
Women's  work  is  largely  confined  to  setting  up  "straight  mat 
ter"  and  "distributing,"  or  returning  type  to  the  proper  boxes. 
Both  processes  are  light,  but  require  some  education  and  con 
stant  attention.  Imposing,  or  dividing  the  galleys  into  pages, 
is  ordinarily  done  by  men,  because  it  involves  considerable 
heavy  lifting.  So,  too,  locking  up  the  properly  placed  pages 
into  forms — which  simply  means  putting  a  sort  of  frame  on  the 
collected  sticks  which  are  to  constitute  the  page — is  done  by 
men,  for  the  same  reason.  The  hand  or  foot  press  upon  which 
the  trial  galley  is  printed  involves  heavy  work  and  is  managed 
by  men.  In  proof  reading,  however,  no  distinction  is  made  be 
tween  men  and  women.  The  work  must  be  done  by  practical 
printers,  for  not  only  must  the  text  be  correct,  but  in  book  work 
it  must  present  no  awkward  spacings,  no  piling  up  in  ugly 
columns  of  recurring  monosyllables,  no  improper  indentations 
of  lines  or  numerous  other  errors  that  would  mar  the  appear 
ance  of  the  page.  Of  course,  expert  proof  reading  is  an  art  not 
to  be  learned  in  a  day,  and  hence  the  majority  of  readers  are 
printers  of  long  experience;  although  in  a  very  high  class 
printing  establishment  young  college  men  are  taking  up  proof 
reading,  having  just  learned  the  necessary  type-setting.  Sub 
ordinate  to  the  proof  reader  is  the  copy  holder,  who  reads  the 
manuscript  or  copy;  this  work  of  course  requires  only  ability  to 
read  the  text.  The  copy  holder  is  nearly  always  a  young  girl 
who  looks  to  learning  type-setting  later.  Feeding  the  press  is 
wearisome  work,  because  it  involves  standing  for  a  considerable 
time,  but  otherwise  it  requires  no  great  strength  and  little 
skill;  it  is  largely  done  by  women.  On  the  other  hand,  manag 
ing  the  press,  adjusting  the  machine,  watching  its  movements, 
etc.,  involves  some  knowledge  of  machinery,  some  dexterity  and 
judgment,  and  considerable  strength.  It  is  dirty  work,  too, 
and  necessitates  climbing  about  the  machines  in  a  way  that 
would  be  impossible  for  a  woman  on  account  of  her  dress. 
Hence,  the  pressmen  have  no  competition  from  their  sisters  in 

(459) 


18 

the  trade.  Upon  the  linotype  machine  both  men  and  women 
are  at  work;  the  key  board  is  managed  in  much  the  same  way 
as  a  typewriter  and  the  same  sort  of  skill  is  required.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  scale  of  workers  young  girls  are  found  doing 
simple  unskilled  tasks;  the  smarter-sones  of  these  are  given  a 
chance  to  learn  the  trade.  The  preparing  of  frontispieces,  pam 
phlets,  advertisements,  hand  bills,  etc.,  is  more  difficult  than 
setting  up  plain  matter,  for  it  requires  some  skill  in  making  an 
attractive  page;  so,  too,  is  the  making  up  of  a  page  of  news 
paper  or  other  periodical.  Men  usually  do  these  things,  although 
women  occasionally  learn  the  art  by  watching  men  at  their 
tasks  and  asking  to  be  allowed  to  help  at  some  opportune 
moment. 

It  will  be  seen  from  our  account  that  the  chief  field  of 
competition  between  men  and  women  in  the  printing  trade  is 
in  setting  up  straight  matter.  The  women  compare  well  with 
the  men  in  accuracy  of  work,  but  can  not  ordinarily  do  so  much 
as  their  male  competitors  in  the  same  time.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Typographical  Union  says  that  all  employers  are  agreed 
that  women  can  not  compete  with  men  where  the  same  wages 
are  paid.  This  statement  was  corroborated  by  several  Boston 
master  printers,  who  declared  that  if  they  had  to  pay  the  same 
time  wages  to  women  they  would  turn  all  the  girls  off,  because 
they  could  not  earn  the  $17  and  $18  per  week  which  was  the 
Union  rate.  One  large  employer's  wage  schedule  for  women 
piece  workers  showed  earnings  from  $10  to  $14  for  type  setters 
upon  full  time.  Since  this  was  according  to  the  Union  piece 
scale,  it  went  to  justify  the  statement  as  to  the  smaller  amount 
of  work  done  by  the  women.  A  Union  official  states  that  in 
non-union  offices  in  Boston  women  are  employed  at  from  $8  to 
$12  per  week  on  a  time  scale.  Women  are  employed  upon  the 
linotype  in  small  numbers  on  Boston  afternoon  papers,  where 
a  Union  time  scale  is  paid,  but  there  are  few  in  other  cities. 
That  they  are  employed  at  all  shows  that  some  women  can  earn 
the  scale  and  equal  men  in  quantity,  as  well  as  quality,  of  work; 

(460) 


19 

that  they  are  employed  in  very  small  numbers — less  than  a 
dozen — is  a  matter  for  reflection.  Is  it  because  only  a  few 
choice  women  can  compete  on  equal  terms  with  men,  or  must 
the  prejudice  of  the  employer  or  of  brother  workmen  be  con 
sidered?  That  the  women  employed  are  above  the  average  in 
ability  is  denied  by  the  employers,  as  is  also  the  existence  of 
prejudice  on  their  own  part.  They  said  they  did  not  care  whether 
women  or  men  were  in  the  offices,  and  attribute  the  scarcity  of 
women  to  the  attitude  of  the  Union,  a  matter  which  we  will  take 
up  when  considering  Union  policy  regarding  women's  work. 
In  one  fine  book  establishment  a  number  of  women  were  found 
at  work  upon  the  linotype  machine  and  were  said  to  be  as  effi 
cient  as  the  men  and  were  paid  the  same  wages.  Women  are 
employed  as  proof  readers,  moreover,  in  Union  book  and  news 
paper  offices,  on  the  same  time  scale  with  men,  but  in  non-union 
offices  they  get  less.  In  the  oldest  printing  establishment  in 
the  country,  where  the  highest  class  work  is  done,  the  employer 
explained  the  difference  by  the  fact  that  the  men  were  better 
educated,  some  of  them  even  being  college  graduates.  In  the 
three  kinds  of  work  mentioned  above  women  hold  their  own- in 
the  more  difficult  tasks,  proof  reading  and  linotype  operating. 
Many  parts  of  the  trade  are  not  suited  to  women's  strength, 
but  the  more  complicated  kinds  of  type-setting,  advertising, 
bill  heads,  etc.,  seem  to  be  a  field  where  women  might  prove 
efficient.  Why  she  does  not  learn  this  more  difficult  work  is  a 
question  answered  in  different  ways.  She  doesn't  care  to  work 
hard  for  a  larger  salary,  declares  a  prominent  Union  official; 
an  employer,  a  leading  member  of  the  Typothetse,  when  asked 
if  a  woman  would  be  given  a  chance  to  learn  the  more  difficult 
and  better  paid  processes,  answers  frankly,  no;  for  the  employer 
does  not  wish  to  have  his  workmen  hindered  with  helping  along 
girls  who  stay  only  a  short  time  in  his  service.  This  gentle 
man,  a  person  apparently  without  any  prejudice  on  this  subject, 
insisted  upon  the  importance  of  the  temporary  character  of 
women's  labor  as  an  influence  keeping  them  from  rising  to  the 

(46i) 


20 

best  classes  of  work.  He  admitted  that  a  few  women  stayed  on 
ten  or  more  years,  but  a  large  proportion  of  his  men  had  been 
with  him  for  over  that  period.  None  of  the  women  left  for 
work  in  other  houses;  most  of  them  were  getting  married;  some 
went  home  to  take  care  of  parents  or  orphaned  brothers  and 
sisters;  but  matrimony  was  regarded  as  the  main  cause  of 
women's  position  in  the  trade.  Another  large  Boston  employer 
thought  that  women  were  no  more  transient  than  men,  but 
admitted  that  the  majority  of  type-setters,  both  men  and  wom- 
,-5£i,  were  not  likely  to  remain  long  in  one  place.  He  explained 
iris  preference  for  girls  by  saying  that  they  were  more  contented 
and  of  much  higher  character  than  the  men. 

The  place  of  women  in  the  International  Typographical 
Union  is  of  particular  interest,  for  there  is  a  greater  degree  of 
competition  between  the  sexes  in  the  printing  than  in  most 
other  trades.     The  constitution  directs  locals  to  organize  all 
women  within  their  jurisdiction  as  soon  as  possible,  and  place 
them  upon  the  same  basis  with  men  as  to  wages,  dues,  and 
benefits.     In  1902  the  general  convention  made  provision  for 
the  establishment  of  separate  locals  for  women,  but  at  the 
present  time  no  such  Unions  exist.     The  results  of  the  policy  of 
an  identical  scale  are  difficult  to  decide.     Employers  say  that 
insistance  upon  a  uniform  time  scale  for  men  and  women  is 
simply  a  means  of  putting  women  out  of  the  trade,     The  head 
of  a  large  Boston  printing  house  is  responsible  for  the  statement 
that  the  printed  reports  of  conferences  between  the  representa 
tives  of  the  Typothetae,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  Union,  on 
the  other,  contain  the  declaration  of  the  Union  officers  that  the 
Union  policy  was  to  force  women  out  of  the  trade  by  insisting 
upon  the  same  scale  for  them  as  for  men  compositors.     Boston 
is  the  one  place  where  women's  competition  is  a  most  serious 
matter;  they  have  been  employed  in  the  city  and  suburbs  in 
large  numbers  from  an  early  date,  and  are  organized  to  a  very 
small  extent.     The  secretary  of  the  Boston  local  estimated  that 
there  were  500  to  600  women  type-setters  in  Boston,  Norwood, 

(462) 


21 

and  Cambridge  in  the  book  and  job  trade,  and  600  to  800  men; 
of  these  women  a  small  per  cent  is  in  the  Union.  The  trade  as 
a  whole  is  less  well  organized  in  Boston  than  in  other  large 
cities,  and  the  questions  arise  whether  the  small  success  of 
organization  and  the  extensive  employment  of  women  are 
related  as  cause  and  effect  and,  if  so,  which  condition  is  prior 
to  the  other.  Master  printers  say  that  women  are  employed 
because  the  Union  is  not  strong  enough  to  enforce  its  uniform 
scale.  Unionists  explain  their  comparative  lack  of  strength  in 
this  locality  by  the  fact  that  women  have-  so  long  been  em 
ployed  here,  and  that  they  are  very  difficult  to  organize.  The 
impartial  observer  finds  several  conditions  that  go  toward 
explaining  their  employment  in  such  large  numbers.  In  the 
first  place,  the  preponderance  of  the  book  trade,  with  its  demand 
for  type-setters  on  "straight  matter/' which  is  the  work  women 
usually  do,  would  make  their  employment  a  natural  thing,  if 
men  were  scarce  or  unruly.  Besides,  the  example  of  the  early 
employment  of  women  in  the  textile  factories,  the  spirit  of 
New  England  thrift  and  independence,  and  the  general  high 
degree  of  intelligence  and  education  among  all  classes  must  be 
considered  as  reasons  for  the  introduction  of  women  into  the 
Boston  printing  offices.  In  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Chicago 
their  presence  in  the  trade  is  of  no  significance.  A  New  York 
Union  official  considered  women  inferior  in  ability  and  explained 
their  presence  even  in  small  numbers  by  saying  that  it  had  be 
come  the  custom  to  have  a  few  women  in  some  offices.  In 
Chicago,  the  nature  of  the  trade  is  said  to  preclude  the  extensive 
employment  of  women;  since  newspapers,  trade  journals,  job 
work,  and  an  enormous  amount  of  catalog  printing  constitute 
the  greater  part  of  the  business;  most  of  this  is  rush  work,  is 
made  up  of  other  than  straight  type-setting,  and  is  paid  by  the 
time  scale,  all  of  which  make  it  unsuited  to  women. 

Printing  is  one  of  the  trades  in  which  direct  competition 
between  the  sexes  has  led  to  some  hard  feeling.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  local  officials  complain  that  they  can  "do  nothing 
with  the  women",  that  they  have  failed  after  repeated  efforts 

(463) 


22 

to  enlist  their  sympathy  and  interest;  and  they  seem  disgusted 
with  the  frivolity  of  the  sex.     On  the  other  hand,  capable  and 
intelligent  Union  women  insist  that  the  organization  does  not 
want  them,  and  favors  men,  wherever  possible,  by  giving  them 
places  and  advancing  them  at  the  expense  of  women  competi 
tors.     This  action  is  possible  because  the  foreman  in  all  Union 
offices  has  the  right  to  discharge  for  incompetency  and  to  select 
the  best  workmen  according  to  the  Union  scale,  and  can  of 
course  discriminate  against  women  employees,  if  the  feeling  in 
the  shop  is  with  him.     Instances  were  cited  of  foremen's  refus 
ing  to  consider  the  claims  of  women  who  were  of  unquestionable 
ability;  men  would  boast  that  when  they  got  to  be  foremen  they 
would  turn  out  all  the  women,  but  when  it  came  to  carrying 
out  this  threat  they  were  not  always  ready  to  deprive  themselves 
of  some  of  their  best  workpeople.     One  instance  of  very  flagrant 
neglect  on  the  part  of  Union  officials  to  make  the  most  of  an 
opportunity  to  explain  Union  principles  to  a  large  number  of 
women  who  were  interested  in  the  movement  gave  considerable 
weight  to  other  accusations.     The  exact  condition  would  prob 
ably  be  difficult  for  an  outsider  to  determine,  but  from  the 
attitude  of  both  men  and  women  it  seems  probable  that  the  men 
have  tried  to  bring  women  into  the  organization,  and  have 
failed,  and  that  they  have  given  up  the  matter  with  rather  bitter 
feelings  toward  female  competitors  both  inside  and  outside  the 
Union.     Yet  there  is  often  good  fellowship  between  the  men 
and  women  members  of  the  local,  and  the  man  most  discon 
tented  with  the  progress  of  the  women  spoke  with  great  respect 
of  some  who  were  capable  and  dignified.     A  much  larger  per 
centage  of  the  men  in  the  craft  than  of  the  women  are  enrolled 
in  the  Union,  and  all  Union  representatives  agree  that  women 
are  much  harder  to  organize  than  men.     An  explanation  for 
this  lack  of  interest  is  given  by  the  general  secretary  as  follows: 
"A  large  percentage  of  women  who  work,  are  merely  doing  so 
until  they  find  the  man  of  their  choice,  and  become  the  head 
of  a  household.     They  do  not  expect  to  work  at  it  for  a  life 
time;  consequently  there  is  no  use  of  their  joining  the  Union. 

(464) 


23 

Again,  proprietors,  as  above  stated,  claim  that  they  can  not  pay 
men  and  women  the  same  wages  for  the  reason  that  women 
can  not  perform  the  same  amount  of  work  as  do  men.  Women 
therefore  decline  to  join  the  Union,  fearing  displacement  by 
men  in  case  they  do  so."  The  question  at  once  arises:  Why 
does  the  Union  insist  on  an  identical  scale?  Would  it  not  be  a 
measure  of  justice  which  women  would  recognize,  to  establish 
a  differential? 

Once  within  the  Union  women  seem,  for  some  reasons,  to 
lack  interest  in  its  activities;  in  the  small  towns  it  sometimes 
happens  that  they  are  of  considerable  influence,  and  act  as  offi 
cers,  but  in  the  cities  they  hold  no  official  positions,  and  do  not 
largely  attend  meetings.  In  the  general  organization  they  are 
not  represented  among  the  officers  and  organizers,  and  are  only 
occasionally  sent  as  delegates  to  conventions.  When  asked  as 
to  their  having  any  influence  on  the  Union  policy,  the  very 
non-committal  answer  was  given  by  a  general  official,  that  they 
had  their  votes  as  did  the  men.  This,  with  other  evidence,  jus 
tifies  one  in'  inferring  that  they  are  not  a  factor  in  the  policy  or 
politics  of  the  organization.  The  failure  of  women  Unionists 
to  attend  local  meetings  is  worth  noting  here,  because  it  brings 
up  certain  features  of  the  mixed  local  that  are  of  significance. 
The  policy  of  organizing  according  to  the  department  of  work 
results,  in  many  trades,  in  practically  separating  men  from 
women;  the  Typographical  Union  thinks  it  best  to  have  all 
printers  in  a  city  as  members  of  a  single  local,  and  the  provision 
for  separate  locals  for  women  has  never  been  taken  advantage 
of;  hence  we  have  in  the  cities  very  large  bodies  which  are 
overwhelmingly  masculine.  If  women  came  to  meetings  in  the 
same  proportion  as  men,  they  would  still  form  a  small  group  in 
a  large  roomful  of  men;  they  would  have  little  influence;  and 
would  find  the  atmosphere  little  to  their  taste,  for  it  is  likely  to 
be  black  with  tobacco  smoke.  Like  other  politicians,  the  men 
wrangle  and  draw  out  the  discussions  to  unconscionable  length, 
and  the  women,  taking  little  part  in  the  discussion,  naturally 
become  tired  and  depart  in  disgust.  Another  reason  for  non- 


24 

attendance  at  meetings  is  the  fact  that  these  are  often  held  on 
Sunday  afternoons,  the  only  time  which  working  women  have 
for  visiting  and  recreation;  for  they  can  not  go  out  as  freely  in 
the  evening  as  men.  These  considerations  may  seem  trivial, 
but,  in  reality,  they  are  suggestive  of  fundamental  difficulties 
in  mixed  organizations.  It  is  certain  that  women  are  most 
unlikely  to  speak  freely,  and  take  an  active  and  unembarrassed 
part  in  gatherings  where  men  are  in  the  majority,  and  that 
men  do  feel  themselves  abused  and  imposed  upon,  if  obliged, 
out  of  respect  to  women,  to  give  up  the  privilege  of  smoking  at 
regular  meetings. 

The  Women's  Auxiliary  of  the  Typographical  Union  is  com 
posed  of  the  women  belonging  to  the  families  of  the  Union 
printers  and  is  organized  with  "locals7'  and  "international"  cor 
responding  to  those  of  the  Union.  The  objects  of  the  society 
are  the  social  enjoyment  of  its  members  and  the  furthering  of 
labor  interests.  The  locals  insist  upon  the  use  of  label  goods, 
agitate  for  improvement  in  child  labor  laws,  look  after  the  sick 
of  the  society,  and  increase  the  good  fellowship  among  the  fam 
ilies  of  the  locals  by  social  gatherings. 

3.     THE  INTERNATIONAL  BROTHERHOOD  OF  BOOKBINDERS 

Like  type  setting,  book  binding  is  a  trade  which  men  acquire 
thoroughly  by  means  of  a  four  years'  apprenticeship;  while  girls 
learn  one  process  in  a  few  weeks,  become  full  fledged  workers, 
and  possibly  remain  at  that  task  for  a  long  time.  In  large 
offices  raw  girls  are  taken  in  for  folding,  the  simplest  work,  and 
from  these  the  foreman  selects  the  most  fit  for  the  higher 
grades;  in  offices  in  smaller  towns  a  girl  has  a  chance  of  learn 
ing  all  the  women's  tasks,  and  a  year  or  more  is  required  for 
completing  them.  With  the  exception  of  folding,  the  different 
kinds  of  work  are  of  about  the  same  difficulty,  and  since  a  girl 
earns  more  at  the  task  at  which  she  is  proficient  than  at  a  new 
one,  she  remains  at  that  task  by  preference,  unless  intermittent 
work  shifts  her  from  one  to  another  kind  of  labor.  The  absence 
of  competition  between  the  sexes  in  this  trade  gives  an  inter- 

(466) 


25 

esting  opportunity  of  studying  a  division  of  labor  based  upon 
the  nature  of  the  tasks  themselves,  rather  than  upon  custom, 
prejudice,  or  the  policy  of  the  Union.  Men  do  the  tasks  which 
require  strength — not  necessarily  in  the  process  itself  but  in 
auxiliary  labor — such  as  handling  heavy  piles  of  paper  or  books; 
they  also  do  most  of  the  work  upon  the  machines,  for  these 
require  both  strength  and  some  knowledge  of  machinery,  such 
as  ability  to  discover  and  remedy  minor  difficulties;  women  and 
girls  in  the  trade  have  to  do  with  the  machines  proper  in  only 
two  processes,— folding  and  sewing,  and  w^ork  usually  with  a 
tool  upon  a  simple  task  that  requires  often  considerable  dexter 
ity  and  constant  attention. 

According  to  the  opinion  of  Union  officers  and  employers, 
the  girls  in  the  trade  are  mostly  of  American  birth,  and  of  all 
ages  between  fourteen  and  sixty,  though  most  of  them  are 
young.  In  one  large  shop  of  high  standing  it  was  said  that 
three  fourths  were  in  the  shop  five  years  before.  The  employ 
ment  of  the  women  is  threatened  by  several  new  machines  that 
are  on  the  market,  but  have  not  been  perfected;  the  folding 
machine  is  not  new,  but  is  becoming  more  satisfactory  all  the 
time;  and  with  it  a  man  and  four  girls  do  the  work  that  eight 
or  ten  girls  did  with  the  simpler  machines  or  by  hand.  Gather 
ing  and  pasting  machines  are  not  in  general  use  because  their 
work  is  not  quite  true,  but  they  too  are  in  a  way  to  be  perfected 
soon.  Their  use  will  mean  the  displacement  of  a  number  of 
girls  in  every  shop  large  enough  to  make  the  introduction  of 
the  machines  profitable.  Girl  folders  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Boston  get  $4.40  a  week;  the  most  skilled  workers  make  $12  to 
$14.  Occasionally  a  girl  makes  $18.  The  general  secretary  of 
the  Union  writes  that  there  is  a  stream  of  girls  passing  through 
the  trade,  remaining  a  few  years  and  then  marrying  or  going 
to  something  else,  but  that  when  a  girl  once  becomes  proficient 
she  is  likely  to  remain  in  the  trade  some  time. 

Corresponding  with  the  difference  between  the  positions  of 
men  and  women  in  the  industry,  the  requirements  of  the  Union 
for  the  two  classes  are  different:  men  must  have  served  their 

(467) 


26 

four  years  apprenticeship,  while  employment  at  any  branch  of 
the  trade  makes  women  eligible.  In  like  manner  dues  and  ben 
efits  differ;  men  pay  25  cents,  and  women  17  cents  to  the  inter 
national;  strike  benefits  per  week  are  $5  to  an  unmarried 
man,  $7  to  a  married  man,  and  $4  to  a  woman;  funeral 
benefits  are  $50  for  all  classes.  Added  to  these  are  local 
dues,  bringing  the  total  payment  to  25  or  30  cents  per  month; 
one  society  has  a  75  cent  tax,  and  gives  a  sick  benefit,  which  few 
locals  provide  for.  Women  are  organized  into  mixed  locals 
and  those  composed  wholly  of  women.  Of  twenty  women's 
locals  reported,  all  but  one  had  women  secretaries.  The  third 
vice  president  is  a  woman,  and  when  asked  what  influence  wo 
men  had  upon  the  policy  of  the  Union,  the  general  secretary 
replied  that  they  had  their  proportion  of  delegates,  but  no  re 
port  of  their  activity  was  given.  Much  stress  is  laid  by  a  num 
ber  of  local  secretaries  upon  the  importance  of  the  label.  In 
bookbinding  we  have  a  trade  in  which  general  conditions  are 
favorable  for  the  organization  of  women  workers;  their  tasks 
being  complementary  to  those  of  men,  no  feeling  of  jealousy 
between  them  exists,  and  the  men  have  every  motive  to  foster 
the  growth  of  the  women's  locals.  Fair  wages,  comfortable 
shops,  and  work  that  is  not  particularly  disagreeable  attract  to 
the  better  establishments  girls  of  fair  intelligence,  a  character 
istic  most  advantageous  to  the  growth  of  Unionism  among  any 
set  of  people.  The  bindery  girls  are  also  of  American  birth 
largely  and  hence  are  free  from  the  hindrance  of  differences  of 
language  and  of  race  prejudice.  It  may  be  noted  here  that  one 
of  the  most  influential  women  Unionists  in  the  country  belongs 
to  the  bookbinder's  craft.  As  explained  in  the  consideration  of 
the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union,  the  existence  of  a  large 
number  of  label  shops  makes  it  difficult  to  estimate  the  inter 
est  of  the  women  by  their  numbers;  but  in  this  case  there  is  a 
larger  proportion  of  women  than  in  the  shoe  factories  and  they 
thus  have  a  greater  influence  in  determining  whether  the  shops 
shall  be  unionized.  Upon  the  whole  their  position  is  much  like 
that  of  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers,  though  wages  are  not  as 

(468) 


27 

good;  many  of  the  locals  seem  to  be  in  a  healthy  condition,  and 
no  general  cause  of  difficulty  or  discord  exists;  but  with  a  few 
exceptions  women  have  little  influence  upon  the  general  policy 
of  the  organization,  and  they  are  found  to  give  up  their  alle 
giance  more  easily  than  men  and  to  neglect  meetings  of  their 
locals. 

4.     THE  UNITED  GARMENT  WORKERS 

The  United  Garment  Workers  Union  includes  men  and 
women  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  ready-made  and  special- 
order  clothing.  Custom  tailors  have  a  separate  organization, 
as  did  also  the  special  order  workers  until  1903.  The  trade  in 
cluded  in  1900, 120,950  wage  earners,  of  whom  69,862  or  57.8  per 
cent  were  women. l  The  preeminence  of  New  York  as  a  centre 
of  the  trade  is  due  to  the  constant  and  enormous  inflow  of  for 
eigners  who  on  account  of  their  low  standard  of  living  and  gen 
eral  helplessness  constitute  a  very  cheap  instrument  of  produc 
tion.  Chicago,  the  second  city  in  importance,  for  like  reason 
is  the  seat  of  a  large  industry;  both  places,  of  course,  possess 
the  general  commercial  advantages  of  a  metropolis.  The  pro 
duct  of  the  trade  includes  (1)  men's  and  boy's  pants,  vests,  and 
coats,  (2)  overalls  and  other  workingmen's  garments,  and  (3) 
special  order  clothing — suits  made  to  measure  but  without  fit 
ting  and  usually  according  to  factory  methods.  The  general 
conditions  of  work  and  division  of  labor  are  different  in  the 
production  of  these  various  classes  of  goods  and  shops  are  usu 
ally  specialized  for  the  making  of  coats,  pants  and  vests. 

The  organization  of  labor  in  the  clothing  manufacture  is 
varied;  but  the  feature  best  known  to  the  public  is  the  system 
of  sub-contract  practiced  by  many  of  the  so-called  manufactur 
ers,  who  take  the  risk  of  profit  or  loss,  buy  the  cloth,  and  sell 
the  finished  garment.  In  the  manufacturers'  own  rooms  these 
garments  are  cut  by  skilled  workmen  and  are  then  finished  in 
one  of  the  following  ways :  they  are  given  out  to  contractors, 
who  (a)  finish  them  in  their  own  shops,  or  (b)  divide  them  up 

1  Twelfth  Census,  Manufactures  3:  267. 

(469) 


28 

among  sub-contractors,  or  (c)  parcel  them  out  to  individuals. 
Sometimes  the  manufacturer  may  have  them  finished  upon  his 
own  premises,  by  workmen  hired  directly  by  him.  The  owner  of 
the  goods  is  call  ed  the  manufacturer,  although  it  is  only  in  the  last 
mentioned  case  that  he  produces  according  to  factory  methods; 
he  is,  however,  the  one  person  in  the  business  who  has  capital, 
for  the  contractor  and  sub-contractor  are  usually  immigrants 
of  a  few  year's  residence,  possessing  little  means.  They  employ 
still  later  arrivals  from  European  countries  to  work  long  hours 
at  very  low  wages  and  in  unsanitary  surroundings.  The  dis 
tressing  details  of  their  hopeless  condition  have  been  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  public  by  various  investigators  and  have 
roused  sympathy  for  the  victims  of  this  so-called  "sweating 
system".  That  the  extreme  poverty  and  helplessness  of  sweat 
ed  laborers  were  the  result  of  the  sub-contract  method  of  pro 
duction,  and  that  sub-contract  work  was  the  essential  element 
of  sweating,  was  generally  believed  until  the  British  investiga 
tion1  proved  that  the  evils  of  low  wages  and  long  hours  were 
also  present  where  there  was  direct  employment  of  laborers 
and  that  they  were  always  to  be  found  wherever  there  are  con 
gregated  large  numbers  of  persons  who  are  industrially  help 
less,  whether  from  lack  of  training,  physical  strength,  mental 
alertness  or  familiarity  with  surroundings.  In  the  great  cloth 
ing  centers  of  New  York  and  Chicago  the  "system"  is  made 
possible  by  the  congestion  of  an  enormous  foreign  population, 
little  skilled  in  American  methods  of  work  and  unacquainted 
with  the  language  and  industrial  conditions  of  the  country. 
That  the  trade  is  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews  is  easily  ex 
plained  by  their  race  traits  and  economic  situation.  Owing  to 
the  governmental  or  customary  restrictions  under  which  they 
have  lived  for  centuries  in  other  lands,  they  are  unfitted  for 
many  of  the  more  remunerative  lines  of  employment.  They 
have  great  industry  and  endurance  arid  are  ready  to  kill  them 
selves  with  hard  work  in  order  to  raise  their  children  to  a  high 
er  plane  of  living;  and  because  of  their  over-developed  commer- 

1  Mrs.  Willett,  Women  in  the  Clothing  Trades,  33. 

(470) 


29 

cial  sense  they  are  attracted  to  any  trade  that  gives  them  the 
chance  of  rising  easily  to  the  place  of  employer  and  of  thus 
bargaining  and  making  their  income  in  the  form  of  profit.  The 
contract  system  of  the  clothing  trade  presents  this  opportunity 
and  its  miserable  conditions  do  not  deter  men  inured  to  hard 
ships  of  all  kinds.  The  large  number  of  this  race  in  the  trade 
have  prevented  a  more  extensive  employment  of  women,  in 
the  first  place,  because  the  constant  inflow  of  Jewish  immi 
grants  with  their  readiness  to  accept  small  wages  and  work 
long  hours  destroys  the  usual  advantage  of  female  labor;  and 
in  the  second  place  because  it  is  against  Hebrew  tradition  for 
women  to  continue  other  than  home  work  after  marriage. 
With  the  German  tailors  the  custom  is  quite  different;  in  New 
York  there  are  many  of  this  nation  working  with  wife  and  child 
ren  and  one  or  two  outsiders  as  assistants,  in  what  may  be  called 
family  shops.1  Besides  these  two,  there  are  various  other  na 
tions  represented  in  the  industry;  in  the  special  order  trade 
which  is  centered  in  Chicago  the  majority  of  workers  are  Swedes, 
and  in  both  New  York  and  Chicago  large  numbers  of  Italian 
women  finish  off  garments.  Among  the  cutters  there  are  Irish, 
English,  Germans,  and  Swedes. 

The  giving  out  of  work  to  people  living  in  very  crowded 
and  filthy  parts  of  the  great  cities  signified  of  course  a  produc 
tion  under  most  unsanitary  conditions  and  worst  of  all  the 
evils  was  the  danger  of  contagion  arising  from  making  gar 
ments  in  the  living  room  of  the  tailor  where  filth  and  disease 
were  often  present.  These  shops  have  now  been  partially  done 
away  with  as  a  result  of  restrictive  legislation.  Garments  are 
still  finished  by  Italian  women  in  their  own  living  rooms,  but 
registration  and  an  inadequate  inspection  have  done  something 
to  reduce  the  danger  of  contagious  disease  from  this  source. 
Family  shops  and  those  employing  a  very  small  number  of 
helpers  still  form  23.2  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  shops, 
the  other  extreme  in  size  is  represented  by  the  1.2  per  cent  of 
factories  with  more  than  250  wage  earners;  shops  employing 

*  Mrs.  Willett,  Women  in  the  Clothing  Trade,  33. 

(471) 


30 

from  5  to  20  persons  constitute  47.2  per  cent  of  the  whole,  and 
those  employing  from  21  to  50  are  19.9  per  cent.1  The  most 
peculiar  organization  of  labor  is  found  in  the  "task"  coat  shops 
of  the  New  York  Jews;  according  to  this  plan  the  garment  is 
made  by  a  "team"  consisting  of  three  men,  an  operator,  a  bas- 
ter  and  a  finisher;  these  are  usually  supplemented  by  a  presser 
and  a  girl  for  sewing  on  buttons,  who  work  for  two  or  three 
teams.  This  division  of  labor  is  very  effective,  especially  when 
one  swift  workman — probably  the  master  of  the  shop — sets  the 
pace. 

The  largest  part  of  the  product  is  made  in  what  may  be 
called  transition  shops;  they  are  of  moderate  size,  with  from 
fifteen  to  fifty  employes,  and  differ  from  the  task  shop  in  not 
having  the  work  divided  up  among  teams  and  in  paying  wages 
by  tl^e  week  rather  than  by  the  task.  They  differ  from  the 
factory  in  their  smaller  size  and  in  the  fact  that  the  garments 
are  not  owned  by  the  master  or  cut  on  the  premises.  The  fac 
tory  system  is  characterized  by  a  minute  division  of  labor 
among  a  large  number  of  employees,  who  are  hired  by  the  firm 
that  owns  and  cuts  the  garment.  The  economy  of  this  organi 
zation  consists  in  the  possibility  of  using  a  large  amount  of  un 
skilled,  in  connection  with  a  small  amount  of  skilled  labor  and 
in  the  usual  advantages  of  division  of  work.  The  breaking  up 
of  processes  is  here  carried  to  the  extent  that  a  hundred  per 
sons  may  be  employed  in  making  one  coat.  The  factories  are 
likely  to  be  in  better  condition  than  the  smaller  shops,  for  they 
are  more  easily  inspected,  and  regulations  as  to  the  legal  work 
ing  day  are  more  closely  observed,  because  there  is  more  time 
work  and  laborers  have  no  incentive  to  labor  over  hours.  The 
work  is  so  minutely  divided  and  hence  requires  so  little  skill 
that  any  workman,  or  set  of  workmen,  can  be  easily  replaced 
in  a  city  with  a  large  and  helpless  immigrant  population. 
This  fact  and  the  ever  present  alternative  of  giving  work  to 
the  "outsiders"  tend  to  keep  wages  down  and  prevent  the 
growth  of  Unions  among  factory  workers. 

Twelfth  Census  Manufactures,  3:  267. 

(472) 


31 

The  most  skilled  and  important  part  of  the  trade,  the  cut 
ting,  is  always  in  the  hands  of  men,  who  also  do  a  large  part  of 
the  pressing,  which  requires  considerable  strength.  Women 
perform  such  minor  processes  as  felling,  sewing  on  buttons, 
tacking,  making  pads  and  pulling  out  bastings.  They  also 
make  buttonholes  and  do  certain  kind  of  basting.  Both  men 
and  women  operate  machines.  In  general,  the  Germans  make 
greater  use  of  women's  work  than  the  Jews,  who  are  largely 
responsible  for  the  restriction  of  women's  wrork  in  New  York. 
The  employment  of  women  is  not  materially  influenced  by  the 
different  systems  of  production  or  by  the  use  of  mechanical 
motive  power.  In  the  large  overall  factories  with  the  excep 
tion  of  the  cutters  practically  all  the  employees  are  women. 
Much  of  the  finishing  of  men's  garments  is  done  at  very  low 
rates  by  the  Italian  women  home  workers  both  in  New  York 
and  Chicago.  In  some  factories  a  large  number  of  girls  are 
taught  button  hole  making  free  in  order  that  from  among 
them  some  skilled  workers  may  be  chosen  for  the  fine  work  on 
men's  coats.  The  superintendent  of  a  large  factory  having 
characterized  women's  work  as  routine  and  unskilled  admitted 
that  here,  as  in  other  trades,  sensitiveness  of  touch  made  them 
superior  in  a  few  processes. 

In  1902  the  Garment  Workers'  Union  was  composed  of  179 
local  bodies,  of  which  83  were  made  up  of  men  only  and  96  of 
women,  or  both  men  and  women. l  In  the  winter  of  1903-04 
the  policy  of  organizing  women  separately  was  given  up.  As 
regards  financial  benefits  women  are  practically  upon  the  same 
basis  as  men.  No  women  delegates  were  sent  to  the  first  two 
conventions  but  since  1895  they  have  constituted  an  increasing 
percentage  of  the  whole.  This  indicates  considerable  interest 
on  the  part  of  the  women's  Unions,  for  all  delegates  are  sent  at 
the  expense  of  the  local  body.  In  the  mixed  Unions  there 
is  a  slight  tendency  to  send  a  disproportionally  large  number  of 
men.  Until  1899  the  women  delegates  served  only  in  a  general 
way;  since  then  they  have  usually  had  one  out  of  the  seven  places 

1  Mrs.  Willett,  Women  in  the  Clothing  Trade,  Chapter  on  the  Trade  Union, 

(473) 


32 

on  the  Executive  Board.     At  the  present  time  two  women  are 
members  of  the  Board. 

Women  have  had  little  influence  in  the  determination  of 
the  general  policy  of  the  Union;  in  the  conventions  they  rare 
ly  take  part  in  discussions  of  questions  of  broad  interest  or  in 
particular  cases  except  where  they  are  immediately  concerned 
As  expert  witnesses  on  special  conditions  they  speak  to  the 
point,  and  they  perform  valuable  supplementary  work  and  have 
contributed  to  the  orderly  character  of  the  meetings.  The  vi 
tality  of  the  women's  locals  has  been  carefully  studied  by  Mrs. 
Willett  with  the  following  conclusions:  The  very  weak  Unions 
that  lived  less  than  two  years  were  those  whose  formation  had 
been  due  to  the  label's  being  forced  upon  a  small  number  of  wo 
men  by  the  manufacturer  or  by  tailors,  anxious  to  extract  con 
cessions  from  an  unwilling  employer.  But  it  is  also  found  that  a 
good  proportion  of  the  successful  Unions  have  been  formed 
under  the  influence  of  the  label;  so  it  would  seem  that  the  la 
bel  must  be  strengthened  by  other  conditions,  especially  by  the 
presence  of  a  strong  body  of  Unionists  in  the  community  and 
by  some  intelligence  on  the  part  of  workers.  The  custom  of 
the  Jewish  women  of  giving  up  work  after  marriage  has  made 
the  efforts  to  organize  them  wholly  ineffectual.  Unlike  most 
of  the  Unions  considered  in  the  present  study  the  social  func 
tions  of  the  women's  locals  in  the  United  Garment  Workers 
seem  to  be  the  most  important  force  in  maintaining  interest  in 
the  organization  and  are  especially  prominent  in  small  towns. 
The  various  "benefits"  of  most  Unions  appeal  less  to  women 
than  to  men,  and  when  there  is  no  strike  excitement  and  no 
immediate  rise  o,f  wages  in  sight  it  is  very  hard  to  hold  the  wo 
men  together,  and  to  make  them  attend  meetings  and  pay  their 
dues.  It  is  then  that  the  social  attraction  is  introduced  to  pre 
vent  the  falling  away  of  the  indifferent.  The  importance  of 
this  side  of  Union  activities  is  forcibly  expressed  by  Mrs.  Wil- 
lett  as  follows:  "Unless  through  practical  compulsion  from 
without  I  doubt  whether  any  woman's  Union  has  maintained 
itself  with  a  large  membership  for  a  considerable  number  of  years 

(474) 


33 

without  the  aid  of  dances,  card  parties  and  social  gatherings  of 
other  kinds.  The  greater  ease  with  which  social  bonds  are  de 
veloped  in  the  small  towns  and  cities  accounts  largely  for  the 
greater  activity  of  the  Unions  located  in  small  places."  The 
Union  has  done  excellent  service  as  a  school  in  which  knowl 
edge  of  prevailing  conditions  of  the  trade  is  gained,  and  a  clear 
ness  of  judgment  and  a  sense  of  responsibility  and  fair  mind- 
edness  are  developed. 

5.     THE  LADIES'  GARMENT  WORKERS'  UNION 

Like  the  United  Garment  Workers,  this  Union  undertakes 
the  very  difficult  task  of  organizing  a  body  of  wage  earners 
composed  largely  of  unskilled  foreigners,  whose  numbers  are 
increased  every  year  by  immigration.  Its  jurisdiction  covers 
the  workers  on  women's  garments,  while  the  United  Garment 
Workers'  Union  is  made  up  of  persons  employed  on  men's 
outer  garments.  New  York  is  the  center  of  the  women's  as 
well  as  the  men's  clothing  trade.  Before  1880  the  trade  in 
women's  ready  made  clothing  was  confined  almost  entirely  to 
cloaks;  in  the  eighties  suits  were  added,  and  in  the  nineties 
lingerie;  shirt  waists  have  become  an  item  of  importance  in 
the  manufacture,  but  owing  to  changes  in  fashion  this  part  of 
the  trade  is  again  on  the  wane.  In  these  shops,  as  in  those  for 
men's  clothing,  usually  only  one  kind  of  garment  is  made,  and 
the  proportion  of  skilled  and  unskilled  labor,  wages  and  other 
conditions  vary  considerably  with  the  nature  of  the  product. 
The  chief  classes  of  garments  are  cloaks,  suits,  skirts,  waists, 
shirt-waists,  wrappers  and  underwear.  Cloaks  require  the 
largest  proportion  of  skilled  labor  and  in  cloak  shops  is  found 
the  largest  number  of  men,  including  some  Jewish  and  Italian 
finishers;  they  employ  from  eight  to  fifteen  workers.1  There 
is  a  tendency  for  the  small  contractors  to  increase  in  number 
because  the  insignificant  amount  of  necessary  capital  can  be 
borrowed  by  giving  a  mortgage  on  finished  goods  and  the  con 
tractor  has  an  advantage  over  the  large  manufacturers  in  not 

1  Twelfth  Census,  Manufactures  3:  29. 

(475) 


34 

paying  expensive  designers  and  cutters;  he  copies  designs  and 
does  his  own  cutting.  In  spite  of  the  skill  required  on  these 
garments,  which  must  show  the  precision  in  cut  and  finish 
found  on  men's  coats,  together  with  variety  in  design  and 
elaborateness  of  detail,  the  work  is  being  divided  up  so  that 
unskilled  immigrants  and  especially  women  are  increasingly 
employed  and  at  lower  prices  than  have  prevailed.  They  are 
enabled  to  do  the  work  that  formerly  required  considerable 
experience  by  a  more  minute  division  of  labor  and  the  use  of 
new  additions  to  the  sewing  machine,  which  cost  little  and 
render  a  simple  movement  or  adjustment  as  effective  as  a  dex 
terous  manipulation  of  the  cloth  by  an  experienced  hand. 
Wages  in  the  cloak  shops  are  usually  paid  by  the  piece,  or  oc 
casionally  by  the  hour,  but  the  task  system  of  the  coat  manu 
facture  has  no  place  here.  The  skirt  and  waist  constituting  a 
woman's  suit  are  frequently  made  in  different  places.  Skirts 
are  made  in  shops  similar  to  those  for  cloaks.  Electric  or 
steam  power  prevails  in  Boston,  while  many  foot  machines  are 
found  in  New  York.  The  skirt  trade  is  suffering  severely  from 
the  declining  use  of  separate  waists  and  skirts. 

"Last  year1  men  constituted  75  per  cent  of  the  employees 
in  the  skirt  shops;  this  spring  they  have  fallen  to  60  and  by 
fall  it  will  be  50  per  cent  only":  such  was  the  estimate  of  an 
intelligent  Union  organizer.  There  is  a  larger  proportion  of 
women  than  in  the  cloak  shops;  here  they  baste,  do  some  oper 
ating,  and  finish.  Most  of  the  workers  are  Jewish,  but  there 
are  a  good  many  American  operators.  The  shirt  waist  indus 
try  has  developed  rapidly  in  the  last  few  years,  big  shops  grow 
ing  out  of  small  ones  on  every  hand,  but  it  is  believed  that  a 
change  in  fashion  is  about  to  cause  a  rapid  decline  in  the  de 
mand  for  these  garments.  Shops  run  from  fifteen  to  one  hun 
dred  or  more  employees.  Men  do  the  cutting  of  waists  but  the 
remainder  of  the  workers  are  usually  women,  who  easily  learn 
the  tasks;  for  the  operating  or  sewing  up  of  the  waist  is  divided 
up  into  a  number  of  small  parts.  Work  is  more  regular  here 

1 1903. 

(476) 


35 

than  in  some  other  branches  of  the  trade,  the  girls  finding 
something  to  do  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  They 
average  about  $5.00  per  week  but  get  as  much  as  $9.00  or 
$10.00  for  a  short  time  in  the  better  shops.  Improvement  of 
conditions  is  said  to  be  hampered  by  the  competition  of  the 
Italians,  and  in  many  places  wages  are  very  low. 

The  wrapper  trade  differs  from  the  others  here  mentioned; 
the  garments  are  made  in  larger  shops  and  wages  are  perhaps 
$1.00  per  week  less  than  for  similar  work  in  waist  making.  This 
is  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  quality  of  the  work  is  not  as 
important  as  in  other  garments,  so  that  cheap  unskilled  labor 
is  used  and  factories  have  been  established  in  the  coun 
try  towns  where  labor  is  cheaper  than  in  the  city.  In  Glouces 
ter  three  or  four  hundred  girls  are  employed  in  one  shop,  which 
has  its  office  and  part  of  its  cutting  rooms  in  Boston.  This  is 
possible  because  little  careful  supervision  or  attention  to  details 
is  required  for  the  rough  work  on  these  garments,  and  the  re 
sult  is  that  the  possibility  of  the  country  factory  serves  as  a 
threat  to  keep  down  city  wages.  After  the  cutting  the  work 
is  done  by  Jewish  or  Italian  girls.  There  are  no  Union  wrap 
per  shops.  Conditions  in  the  white  goods  factories  vary  great 
ly  and  the  Union  has  done  little  with  them  thus  far.  The  work 
ers  upon  women's  garments  of  all  kinds  suffer  from  most  of  the 
ills  that  are  found  in  the  men's  clothing  industry,  chief  among 
which  is  the  presence  of  a  large  and  constantly  increasing  immi 
grant  population,  who  easily  acquire  the  skill  necessary  for  most 
of  the  processes  of  the  trade.  In  the  ladies'  clothing  business 
there  is  the  additional  evil  of  a  demand  peculiarly  sensitive  to 
changes  of  fashion  and  to  the  prosperity  of  the  times.  A  change 
in  the  general  character  of  the  garment,  as  the  decline  in  the  use 
of  separate  waists  and  skirts,  is  likely  to  mean  a  temporary 
falling  off  in  the  demand  for  labor  in  the  ready  made  trade,  for 
a  new  style  of  garment  is  likely  to  be  made  at  first  by  custom 
tailors  or  dressmakers  or  by  the  individual  wearing  them.  Con 
stant  changes  in  cut  and  manner  of  trimming  is  another  unfor 
tunate  circumstance  for  the  worker,  for  they  necessitate  read- 

(477) 


36 

justments  of  wage  scales  which  are  likely  to  give  the  better  in 
formed  employer  an  opportunity  of  reducing  earnings  by  some 
manipulation  of  rates. 

After  considering  the  conditions  of  the  trade,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  a  labor  organization  in  it  has  been  attempted 
only  in  the  last  few  years  and  that  its  label  as  yet  represents  a 
hope  rather  than  an  achievement.1  At  present  it  is  estimated 
that  one-eighth  of  the  workers  are  organized.  In  the  spring  of 
1900  the  cloakmakers  of  New  York,  who  had  had  a  Union  for 
a  number  of  years,  issued  a  call  for  a  convention  to  those  or 
ganizations  throughout  the  country  representing  the  makers  of 
ladies'  garments.  The  convention  met  in  June,  and  New  York, 
Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  responded  to  the  call ;  officers  were 
elected  and  a  label  was  adopted.  In  the  first  year  there  were 
thirty-nine  local  strikes,  thirty-three  of  which  were  won  ;  there 
were  twenty-six  compromises  effected  without  a  strike  and 
wages  of  Union  employees  were  increased  twenty-five  per  cent. 
During  1901-'02  there  were  150  strikes  of  which  125  were  won 
and  eighteen  lost,  wages  were  raised  and  conditions  improved.8 
The  year  1903-'04  was  marked  with  incessant  troubles  with 
employers,  not  only  by  strikes  but  by  a  phenominal  number  of 
lockouts,  which  were  inspired  by  a  determined  opposition  to 
the  Union  and  occasioned  by  the  employers'  advantage  of  a  dull 
market.  Nearly  all  locals  have  suffered  from  efforts  of  the  mas 
ters  to  disrupt  them.3  A  lengthy  struggle  between  six  hundred 
corset  workers  in  the  West  and  their  employers  was  notable 
because  of  the  support  received  from  outsiders  and  of  the  low 
wages  and  petty  tyranny  which  it  revealed.  The  Union  had 
gained  a  nine  hour  day,  a  fixed  repair  schedule  and  an  increase 
of  ten  per  cent  in  wages,  but  after  a  year  the  firm  reduced  wages 
to  the  old  standard  and  demanded  individual  contracts.  Many 
of  the  girls  have  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  go  back  under 
these  conditions  and  the  firm  claims  to  be  able  to  do  without 

1  Philip  Davis,  Organizer,  in  the  Federationist,  Jan.  1904. 

2  Federationist  9:610,  1902. 

8  President's  Report,  I9O3-'O4. 

(478) 


37 

them.  It  is  evident  that  the  Ladies7  Garment  Workers  will 
have  to  encounter  a  militant  opposition  from  the  manufactur 
ers,  who  partake  of  the  general  reactionary  feeling  against 
Trade  Unions  and  find  encouragement  in  the  youth  and  weak 
ness  of  this  organization  and  in  the  condition  of  the  labor  mar 
ket. 

In  the  organization  of  this  Union  there  are  one  or  two 
somewhat  noticeable  features ;  the  constitution  provides  that 
in  case  a  strike  voted  for  by  a  local  Union  is  disapproved  by  the 
general  Executive  Board,  the  local  has  the  right  to  appeal 
through  the  Secretary- Treasurer  to  a  vote  of  the  general  mem 
bership.  If  their  action  is  sanctioned  by  a  two-thirds  vote, 
the  Executive  Board  must  sustain  the  strike.  This  is  a  demo 
cratic  arrangement  and  tends  to  reduce  the  power  of  the  officers. 
Another  decentralizing  provision  of  the  constitution  is  that  the 
per  capita  tax  to  be  paid  into  the  general  treasury  shall,  after 
being  voted  by  the  convention,  be  referred  to  the  locals  and  de 
cided  by  a  majority  of  votes  cast ;  all  other  questions  of  finance 
are  decided  by  the  locals.  The  result  of  this  policy  is  seen  in 
the  complaint  of  the  Secretary-Treasurer  that  many  strikes  are 
lost  because  no  financial  aid  can  be  given  them  and  that  the 
funds  are  entirely  inadequate  for  the  needs  of  the  organization.1 
At  the  convention  in  Boston  in  June,  1904,  by  advice  of  the 
President,  the  constitution  was  amended  so  as  to  permit  the 
discussion  of  socialism.  What  will  be  the  result  of  this  radical 
action  upon  the  management  of  Union  affairs  cannot  be  fore 
told.  To  an  observer  it  seems  to  signify  the  despair  of  men 
hopeless  of  ameliorating  by  Union  methods  the  hard  condition 
of  their  trade. 

As  in  most  other  Unions,  so  in  the  Ladies'  Garment  Work 
ers,  women  have  the  same  rights  as  men  ;  but  they  have  had  in 
fact  little  influence  upon  the  policy  of  the  organization.  They 
number  about  fifteen  hundred,  more  than  half  of  the  work 
ers  in  the  trade,  but  only  one-sixth  of  the  members  of  the 
Union.  They  officer  their  own  locals  and  two  women  were  sent 

1  Report  I903-'o4. 

'479) 


88 

as  delegates  to  the  convention  of  1903  but  they  are  not  repre 
sented  on  the  general  Executive  Board  or  among  the  general 
officials.  In  certain  cases  the  women  in  the  trade  have  shown 
considerable  endurance  and  independence,  as  the  corset  work 
ers  of  Aurora  and  the  wrapper  makers  of  Boston,  who  upon 
their  own  initiative  formed  a  vigorous  local  in  spite  of  consid 
erable  opposition  from  employers.  In  New  York  and  other 
great  centers  the  girls  in  the  trade  are  largely  Jewish,  but  there 
are  some  American  born  operators  and  Italian  finishers.  In 
some  instances  the  American  girls  are  said  to  be  less  willing  to 
join  the  Union  than  the  Jewish,  owing  to  their  dislike  of  being 
recognized  as  wage  workers,  and  the  officers  express  great  dis 
couragement  on  the  subject  of  rousing  the  interest  of  the  wo 
men.  One  intelligent  organizer  gives  as  the  two  great  weak 
nesses  of  the  Union,  the  facts  that  so  large  a  part  of  the  work 
ers  consists  of  "an  element  most  difficult  to  deal  with,  as  wo 
men  admissably  are",  and  that  the  label  has  a  "clientage"  of 
women,  who  constitute  "a  class  which  is  even  more  backward 
in  the  keen  perception  of  their  duties  as  consumers  than  in  their 
rights  as  producers".  Only  a  small  proportion  of  women  wage 
earners  are  in  the  Unions  and  these  are  not  always  zealous  in 
their  efforts  to  purchase  Union  made  goods ;  the  families  of 
Union  men  likewise  fail  to  express  their  preference  for  label 
goods. 

This  Union  more  than  any  other  looks  to  the  women's  la 
bel  organization  for  aid  in  educating  women  as  consumers;  it 
has  opposed  the  work  of  the  Consumers'  League,  because  that 
society  does  not  consider  fair  wages  as  one  of  the  conditions 
upon  which  it  grants  its  label ;  an  agreement  has  been  made 
between  the  two  organizations,  according  to  which  the  League 
restricts  its  label  to  white  goods,  but  its  whole  activity  is  con 
sidered  by  the  Union  officers  as  a  menace  to  their  work.  In 
view  of  the  nature  of  the  product  and  the  characteristics  of  the 
consumers  it  seems  doubtful  whether  a  label  policy  can  be  made 
effective  by  the  workers  on  women's  garments  ;  strictly  enforced 
laws  regarding  "sweat  shop"  methods  of  production  and  the 

(480) 


39 

immigration  of  foreigners  seem  to  be  the  only  means  by  which 
a  flourishing  Union  can  be  made  possible. 

6.     THE  UNITED  TEXTILE  WORKERS 

The  large  number  of  women  workers  in  the  textile  factories, 
the  early  date  of  their  employment,  and  the  great  success  of 
British  Unions  in  this  trade  lead  one  to  expect  an  interesting 
Union  movement  among  American  cotton  and  woolen  opera 
tives,  The  facts,  however,  do  not  sustain  the  inference.  Until  very 
recently  the  textile  Unions  have  included  only  the  few  skilled 
workmen,  and  the  present  comprehensive  organization  is  very 
new  and  weak.  This  late  and  unsatisfactory  development  is  to 
be  explained  by  peculiar  conditions  in  the  trade.  The  manu 
facture  of  woolen  and  cotton  goods  is  uncertain  in  its  profits 
and  its  demand  for  labor  because  of  its  direct  dependence  upon 
agriculture  for  raw  materials.  The  woolen  trade  has  the  added 
disadvantage  of  an  inadequate  domestic  supply,  combined  with 
the  vagaries  of  an  unstable  tariff;  moreover,  it  is  especially 
subject  to  the  whims  of  fashion  which  may  necessitate  sudden 
and  expensive  changes  in  machinery  which  will  wipe  out 
profits  and  the  chance  for  advanced  wages.  The  cotton  indus 
try  is  fortunate  in  its  nearness  to  the  world's  cotton  fields,  but 
so  uncertain  are  the  weather  and  other  conditions  determining 
the  size  of  the  crop,  that  the  value  of  cotton  has  become  the 
subject  of  a  most  elaborate  system  of  calculation,  of  much  un 
informed  guessing,  and  of  underhand  manipulation.  So  keen 
is  competition  and  so  close  is  calculation  of  cost,  that  an  entire 
year's  profits  may  depend  upon  the  foresight  of  a  manufac 
turer  in  buying  at  a  favorable  turn  of  the  market,  and  the 
cleverest  management  finds  it  hard  to  produce  at  a  profit  when 
there  is  so  great  a  shortage  in  the  cotton  crop  and  such  high 
prices  as  ruled  during  1903.  Both  profits  and  wages  suffer 
from  a  season  of  high  priced  cotton,  for  competition  is  so  se 
vere  that  it  is  difficult  to  raise  the  price  of  the  finished  product 
to  correspond  with  the  increased  cost  of  raw  material.  More 
permanent  and  disastrous  for  the  welfare  of  New  England  cot- 

(481) 


40 

ton  operatives  than  a  season's  high  priced  raw  material,  how 
ever,  is  the  competition  of  the  Southern  mills,  which  within 
the  last  fifteen  years  has  become  a  real  menace  to  the  cotton 
manufacture  of  the  North;  for  not  only  have  the  Southern 
mills  the  advantage  of  nearness  to  the  cotton  fields,  but  they 
also  pay  much  lower  wages  owing  to  the  low  standard  of  liv 
ing  and  the  unorganized  condition  of  the  employees.  Demands 
for  higher  wages  by  the  Northern  operatives  are  likely  to  be 
met  by  the  stock  reply  that  the  low  current  prices  of  finished 
product  allow  only  a  minimum  return  or  none  at  all  to  capital; 
and  the  fact  that  this  is  frequently  true  makes  it  a  plausible 
response  for  all  times.  Not  only  does  the  cotton  trade  suffer 
from  unstable  prices  of  raw  material  and  severe  competition 
but  it  is  also  peculiarly  sensitive  to  the  depressing  effects  of  hard 
times;  for,  while  cotton  cloth  is  a  necessity  of  civilized  life? 
our  extravagant  American  consumption  may  be  considerably 
reduced  for  a  season  or  two  without  real  inconvenience  and 
smaller  incomes  result  in  lessened  expenditure  for  such  things. 
These  hard  conditions  for  the  manufacturer  have  resulted  in  a 
very  low  marginal  demand  for  the  textile  operative  which  has 
attracted  to  the  industry  only  those  wage  earners,  who  from 
lack  of  strength  or  training  or  knowledge  of  the  language  and 
customs  of  the  country,  are  for  the  time  at  least  incapable  of 
making  their  way  in  more  exacting  and  remunerative  lines  of 
employment.  Exceptions  are  found,  of  course,  in  the  respon 
sible  and  highly  skilled  workmen  whose  exceptional  ability 
must  be  paid  for  here  as  elsewhere. 

Cloth  making  is  one  of  the  few  great  industries  in  which 
both  men  and  women  have  been  engaged  in  something  like- 
equal  proportions  from  very  early  times.  At  present  there  is  a 
decided  increase  in  the  proportion  of  men  in  the  textiles  as  a 
whole,  and  especially  in  the  cotton  trade.  In  the  twenty  years 
from  1880  to  1900  the  ratio  of  men  increased  from  34.4  to  44.8 
per  cent,  and  that  of  women  decreased  from  48.4  to  41.9  per 
cent.  The  explanation  of  this  change  is  to  be  found  chiefly  in 
nature  of  the  new  machinery.  In  several  of  the  textile  proces- 

(482) 


41 

ses  there  is  direct  competition  between  men  and  women.  In 
the  carding  room,  where  little  skill  is  required,  both  men  and 
women  are  found.  Ring  spinning  is  done  by  women  and  mule 
spinning  by  the  men.  The  mule  spinning  is  more  skilled  work 
and  involves  constant  walking  and  handling  of  the  machinery. 
Work  in  the  slashing  room  is  done  by  men,  because  it  is  heavy, 
is  carried  on  in  a  steam  saturated  atmosphere,  and  requires  the 
handling  of  hot  starch  ;  girls  do  spooling,  or  getting  the  thread 
ready  for  the  slasher.  Weaving  is  done  by  both  men  and  girls, 
and  it  is  here  that  the  most  direct  competition  takes  place. 
Loom  fixers,  who  are  skilled  mechanics  are  men.  In  quality  of 
work,  women  equal  men  :  but  they  usually  tend  a  smaller  num 
ber  of  looms,  although  some  unusually  strong  women  can  aver 
age  as  much  as  the  best  workmen.  The  large  number  of  work 
men  in  the  textile  mills  are  paid  by  the  piece  and  men's  earn 
ings  ordinarily  amount  to  more  than  women's.1 

Unions  of  certain  classes  of  textile  workers,  like  the  Mule 
Spinners  and  Loom  Fixers,  are  not  new,  but  these  as  a  rule  have 
been  composed  of  skilled  workmen  and  have  not  touched  wo 
men  workers.  In  1891,  a  Union  was  formed  which  was  meant 
to  include  all  workers  in  textile  mills  except  the  cotton  mule 
spinners,  who  already  have  a  charter  from  the  American  Feder 
ation  of  Labor.  The  policy  of  this  new  organization  was  unfor 
tunate  and  it  soon  came  in  conflict  with  the  Federation,  whose 
officers  threatened  to  organize  the  textile  workers  into  a  new 
Union  if  the  existing  society  did  not  refrain  from  political  agita 
tion.  As  a  result  new  officers,  approved  by  the  Federation, 
were  elected  in  1897  ;  and  in  1899  measures  were  taken  looking 
to  a  new  organization  which  would  include  the  existing  textile 
Unions,  formed  of  workers  in  various  processes,  such  as  the 
carders,  mule  spinners  and  slashers.  As  late  as  the  convention 
of  1903  the  silk  workers  declined  to  enter  the  Union  and  insist 
ed  upon  having  a  separate  charter  from  the  Federation  of  La 
bor.  This  was  refused  upon  the  policy  of  forming  only  one 
national  Union  within  a  trade.  In  1901,  the  organization  was 

1  T  velfth  Census,  Employees  and  Wages,  XXXIV. 

(483) 


42 

completed  and  embraced  all  textile  workers  except  the  mule 
spinners,  who  had  a  strong  society  with  prior  rights  of  recogni 
tion  by  the  Federation  of  Labor. 

The  proportion  of  women  in  the  Union  seems  to  be  about 
the  same  as  in  the  trade.  The  president  estimates  that  forty 
to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  14,000  members  are  women,  yet  it  is  said 
to  be  difficult  to  get  women  interested.  One  very  evident  ex 
planation  of  this  indifference  is  the  presence  of  large  numbers 
of  very  young  girls  who  are  roused  only  by  the  prospect  of  a 
picnic  or  a  dance.  The  age  of  the  majority  of  female  workers 
is  said  to  be  between  fourteen  and  twenty-four.  The  girls  in 
the  Union  are  usually  there  through  the  influence  of  father 
and  mother.  Organizers  have  amusing  experiences  when, 
after  attracting  young  women  to  a  Union  meeting  by  means  of 
a  dancing  program,  they  attempt  to  inculcate  Union  doctrines 
and  find  their  young  auditors  bored  with  the  speeches  sitting 
with  eyes  turned  longingly  to  the  waiting  musicians.  The 
national  executive  council  of  twelve  includes  one  woman  but 
there  is  no  other  female  officer.  Of  the  sixty-nine  delegates  at 
the  convention  in  1903  five  were  women;  on  the  ten  commit 
tees,  of  three  persons  each,  were  two  women.  The  local  or 
ganization  are  usually  mixed  bodies.  It  is  said  by  those  in  au 
thority  that  women  do  not  come  to  meetings  regularly,  nor  in 
as  large  proportion  as  the  men  do,  but  any  question  of  interest 
will  bring  them  out.  They  are  more  faithful  in  time  of  strikes, 
aid  in  collecting  money  and  in  other  ways,  but  ordinarily  can 
not  be  said  to  take  an  active  part  in  Union  affairs;  although 
here,  as  elsewhere,  representatives  testify  that  there  are  some 
excellent  women  Unionists.  The  predominance  of  young  girls 
and  the  expectation  of  marriage  are  given  as  reasons  for  lack 
of  interest. 

7.     THE  GLOVE  WORKERS'  UNION 

The  glove  trade  and  its  workers  are  of  economic  interest 
on  several  accounts ;  it  is  a  trade  that,  from  the  character  of 
the  work  involved,  is  peculiarly  suited  to  old  countries,  and  is 
transplanted  to  our  Machine  governed  land  only  in  a  modified 

(484) 


43- 

form,  and  with  a  different  organization  of  labor  ;  it  is  localized 
in  a  peculiar  and  picturesque  way  in  small  towns,  and  a  large 
part  of  the  work  is  done  by  women  in  their  homes.  The  indus 
try  originated  before  the  middle  of  the  century  and  has  grown 
steadily,  but  at  an  accelerated  rate,  in  the  last  decade,  when 
the  establishments  increased  from  324  to  394,  the  capital  from 
$5,977,000  to  $9,127,000,  the  value  of  the  product  from  10,000,- 
000  to  $17,000,000,  and  the  workers  from  8,187  to  14,436.'  A  no 
ticeable  fact  about  this  growth  is  that  the  ratio  of  capital  to 
product  has  remained  about  the  same,  while  in  almost  all  other 
industries  the  percentage  of  capital  has  increased  at  the  ex 
pense  of  labor.  Thus  it  appears  that  the  workmen  have  little 
to  fear  from  the  encroachment  of  machinery.  Yet  this  does 
not  mean  that  no  improvements  in  mechanism  are  made,  for  on 
glove-sewing  machines,  the  main  element  of  fixed  capital,  there 
have  been  forty-six  patents  issued  in  the  United  States.  The 
growth  of  the  industry  has  been  almost  entirely  in  men's  gloves, 
which  often  equal  foreign  makes  in  quality.  Of  sixteen  million 
dollars  worth  of  product  twelve  and  four-tenths  millions  were 
men's  gloves,  two  and  four-tenths  millions  women's,  and  the 
rest  childrens'.2  This  specialization  is  explained  by  the  diffi 
culty  of  obtaining  fine  skins,  by  the  nature  of  the  labor,  and  by 
the  character  of  European  competition.  The  European  glove 
makers  have  inherited  the  dexterity  of  manipulation  and  the 
patience  necessary  for  the  delicate  work  of  making  women's 
gloves. 

The  localization  of  the  industry  in  Fulton  County,  New 
York,  is  not  due  to  any  peculiarly  advantageous  economic  con 
ditions,  but  rather  to  a  lack  of  hindrances,  the  start  which  the 
industry  got,  and  its  peculiarly  gregarious  character.  This 
county,  with  the  two  glove  towns,  Grloversville  and  Johnstown, 
contains  over  half  the  14,180  wage  earners  in  the  trade  and 
sixty  per  cent  of  the  capital.3  The  factories  are  controlled  by 


1  Twelfth  Census,  Manufactures,  3:784,  786,792. 

2  Ibid,  787. 
•''Ibid.,  3:  790-2. 

(485) 


44 

local  men  who  have  risen  from  the  ranks,  and,  since  these  are 
towns  of  less  than  20,000,  the  relation  between  employer  and 
employee  might  be  expected  to  be  rather  close.  Outside  of 
this  locality,  Chicago,  with  15,000  employees,  is  the  largest 
glove  making  city;  San  Francisco  and  New  York  have  between 
400  and  500  each.  In  these  cities  only  coarse  working  gloves 
are  made.1 

In  the  process  of  making  gloves,  men's  work  is  quite  clear 
ly  distinguished  from  women's;  male  laborers  prepare  the  skins 
and  cut  the  gloves,  and  in  case  of  heavy  work  do  the  stitching; 
the  other  operations  are  mostly  done  by  women.  According  to 
a  recent  estimate  two-thirds  of  the  employees  are  female. 

Prices  for  making  vary  from  twenty  cents  per  dozen  for 
the  cheapest  gloves  to  one  dollar  for  full  out-seam  work.  Earn 
ings  vary  greatly;  a  general  average  would  be  about  $10.  per 
month,  although  many  work  women  make  75  cents  a  day.1 
Only  the  high  priced  work  is  made  in  factories,  where  not  so  many 
female  operatives  are  employed  as  ten  years  ago.  A  farmer's 
daughter  usually  learns  the  trade  on  her  mother's  machine,  in 
an  apprenticesphip  of  a  week  or  two — and  then  buys  one  at  $35 
for  herself.  The  secretary  of  the  Union  estimates  that  at  the 
present  there  are  70  per  cent  of  the  women  glove  makers  work 
ing  in  the  factories.  They  represent  a  great  variety  of  nation 
alities — American,  English,  German,  Italian,  Swedish,  French, 
Hebrew.  A  large  number  of  women  continue  to  work  in  the 
shop  after  marriage,  "prompted  presumably  by  their  ambition". 

The  conditions  which  favor  the  growth  of  Trade  Unionism 
in  glove  making  are  (1)  the  localization  of  so  large  a  part  of 
the  trade  within  so  small  an  area,  and  in  small  towns  where  the 
spread  of  a  general  sentiment  would  be  very  rapid ;  (2)  the 
presence  of  highly  skilled  workmen,  who  are  much  more  likely 
to  organize  than  the  unskilled;  (3)  the  fact  that  women  work 
after  marriage ;  (4)  the  absence  of  any  powerful  capitalistic  com 
bination  to  dictate  conditions  of  work.  On  the  other  hand,  the 

1  Twelfth  Census,  Manufactures,  3:  785. 

.,  785. 

(486) 


45 

fact  that  a  large  part  of  the  women  are  home  workers  would 
make  it  difficult  to  get  them  together,  and  the  atmosphere  of  a 
rural  community  is  not  as  likely  to  foster  discontent  and  desire 
for  amelioration  of  conditions  as  that  of  the  city.  The  fact  is 
that  un^il  recently  the  women  sewers  were  poorly  organized, 
though  the  cutters  had  a  Union  which  had  been  recognized  by  the 
employers  for  the  last  seven  years,  during  which  time  they  met 
with  the  masters  annually  and  determined  upon  a  schedule  of 
prices  and  conditions  of  work.  In  December,  1902,  a  Union  pro 
posing  to  include  all  parts  of  the  trade  was  founded.  The  pre 
amble  of  the  Constitution  states  one  of  the  objects  to  be  the 
establishment  of  uniform  wages  for  the  same  class  of  work  re 
gardless  of  sex,  but  since  there  is  little  competition  between 
girls  and  men  this  has  no  practical  significance.  The  Union 
has  started  with  rather  inadequate  provisions  for  aggressive 
work,  the  International  dues  being  10  cents  a  month  from  every 
member,  with  authority  in  the  Executive  Board  to  make  an 
assessment  of  10  cents  per  week  ;  there  are  no  benefits,  but  sup 
port  is  assured  to  all  members  in  every  difficulty  which  may 
arise  between  them  and  the  employers,  This  rather  sweeping 
promise  is  limited  by  the  provision  that  "all  contemplated 
strikes  must  have  the  consent  of  the  General  President,  and 
and  general  Executive  Board."  A  Union  label  is  established, 
with  the  usual  arrangements  for  contracts  between  employers 
and  the  Union,  which  provide  for  the  "closed  shop"  and  insure 
against  strikes  and  lockouts.  Ordinarily  the  different  branches 
of  the  craft  are  organized  separately.  At  present,  of  the  thirty- 
nine  locals,  there  are  eight  mixed  and  five  exclusively  female ; 
three  of  these  five  are  located  in  Gloversville.  They  are  thus 
constituted  not  according  to  any  provision  for  women's  locals 
but  upon  the  basis  of  separate  societies  for  different  parts  of 
the  craft.  In  a  very  strong  Chicago  women's  local,  a 
capable  young  girl  who  is  president  emphasized  the  advan 
tages  of  the  separate  local  with  officers  from  among  the  mem 
bers,  saying  that  the  girls  speak  much  more  freely  and  take  a 
greater  interest  in  the  meetings  when  there  are  no  men  present. 

(487) 


46 

In  this  local  the  girls  were  active  and  enthusiastic  arid  the  con 
ditions  of  its  success  are  interesting  and  suggestive.  The  Union 
was  formed  about  two  years  ago,  when  the  cutters  in  a  large 
factory  went  out  on  a  strike  and  were  joined  by  the  girls  who 
objected  to  the  charge  for  power  which  had  been  introduced  in 
imitation  of  a  custom  obtaining  in  Gloversville,  N.  Y.,  where 
it  was  justified  in  a  way  by  the  fact  that  the  women  brought 
their  own  machines  into  the  factory.  Within  a  few  days  the  Chica 
go  strike  was  ended  by  the  employers  withdrawing  the  charges  to 
which  the  girls  objected,  giving  the  men  an  increase  in  wages, 
recognizing  the  Union,  and  making  a  contract  with  it  for  eight 
een  months.  At  the  end  of  this  time  a  new  contract  provided 
another  increase  for  the  cutters  and  Saturday  half  holiday  dur 
ing  the  summer. 

It  is  estimated  by  the  general  secretary  that  two  fifths  of 
the  trade  is  organized,  and  that  of  the  2,000  members,  1800  or 
ninety  per  cent  are  women.  As  female  workers  constitute  but 
67.3  per  cent  of  the  total  employees  in  the  trade,  it  appears 
that  they  are  more  fully  organized  than  the  men.  As  might 
be  expected,  only  a  few  of  the  home  workers  are  in  the  organi 
zation.  Two  members  of  the  executive  board  are  women — the 
second  and  third  vice  presidents — and  women  delegates  are  sent 
to  conventions.  The  secretary  says  that  women  have  not  been 
found  harder  to  organize  than  men  and  that  the  purely  female 
locals  have  been  very  successful. 

8.     THE  CIGAR  MAKERS'  INTERNATIONAL  UNION 

New  machinery  has  greatly  affected  the  methods  used  in 
cigar  making  by  the  big  factories  ;  but  because  the  industry  is 
widely  diffused  in  large  numbers  of  small  establishments,  its 
introduction  is  much  less  general  than  in  the  manufacture  of 
cigarettes,  practically  all  of  which  are  made  in  large  factories!; 
the  serious  opposition  of  the  Union  to  the  new  methods  has  also 
retarded  their  rapid  increase.  By  the  use  of  new  machinery 
untrained  girls  have  been  enabled  to  accomplish  the  work  that 
skilled  men  formerly  did  by  hand ;  at  $2.50  per  thousand  they 

(488) 


R  A  7?v*V 
OFTHF  \ 

UNIVERSITY  ) 

OF  / 

47  ^iurn^ 

make  $7  a  week  whereas  men  formerly  got  $8  to  $10 
per  thousand.  On  most  processes  men  and  women  compete  di 
rectly.  Men  excel  both  in  quality  and  quantity  of  product  but 
there  are  exceptional  women  whom  only  the  best  men  can 
equal.  Often  husband  and  wife  both  work  in  a  factory  ;  the 
man  will  make  perhaps  $20  a  week,  in  a  well  organized  city 
like  Boston  ;  the  wife  $15.  In  New  York  a  good  ordinary 
woman  may  make  $12  or  a  very  clever  one  $16.  A  strong 
woman  in  St.  Louis  makes  $20  or  $25  a  week.  In  the  non 
union  shops  young  girls  make  $6  or  $7.  In  England  wo- 
en  have  not  learned  the  skilled  hand-work  to  any  extent.1  In 
some  cases  they  are  not  given  the  chance  to  do  so,  in  others 
they  do  not  want  to  learn  both  methods.  It  is  considered  that 
women's  maximum  is  about  equal  to  men's  minimum.  Not  all 
this  difference  is  explained  by  the  Union  scale  which,  is  25  per 
cent,  less  for  women  than  for  men  ;  many  of  the  women  do  not 
maintain  the  speed  with  which  they  begin,  many  expect  to  mar 
ry  and  do  not  consider  their  work  seriously  ;  while  after  mar 
riage,  if  they  return  to  work,  they  have  an  eye  on  the  home  and 
come  late  and  go  early.  Again,  the  women  converse  at  their 
work  while  the  men  are  silent.  Even  at  piece  rates  it  is  cheap 
er  to  have  two  people  rather  than  three  make  a  thousand  cigars, 
and  so  women  are  advantageous  to  the  employer  only  at  lower 
wages.  It  has  not  been  found  that  women  in  the  United  States 
are  less  likely  to  learn  hand  work  because  it  is  harder,  but  be 
cause  it  is  less  popular.  The  "Trust"  employs  girls  on  mold 
work  almost  exclusively,  except  at  Tampa  where  men  make 
hand  cigars. 

The  Cigar  Makers'  Union  is  one  of  the  oldest,  richest  and 
most  conservative  of  American  labor  organizations,  and,  al 
though  it  has  had  to  contend  with  sweat  competition  it  has 
had  a  fairly  steady  growth. 

The  membership  of  the  Union  is  about  44,000,  of  whom 
women  constitute  about  ten  per  cent.  It  is  roughly  estimated 


1  Oakeshott,  G.     Women  in  the  Cigar  Trade,  Econ.  Jour.  10:  562. 

(489) 


48 

that  about  one-fourth  of  those  in  the  trades  are  organized. 
Their  employment  has  been  opposed,  by  the  Union,  because 
young  girls  would  be  placed  at  the  new  machines  at  very  low 
wages  to  do  the  work  formerly  done  by  skilled  men.  This  ser 
ious  situation  has  been  somewhat  ameliorated  by  bringing 
women  into  the  Union,  but  even  now  wherever  women  are 
largely  employed  wages  are  low.  This  is  especially  true  in 
New  York  City,  where  the  trade  has  never  been  thoroughly 
organized  and  rates  are  fifty  per  cent,  lower  than  in  Boston. 
In  the  tobacco  region  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  large 
numbers  of  women  are  employed,  and  not  more  than  ten  per 
cent,  are  organized.  When  the  Union  is  strong  the  require 
ment  of  a  three  years'  apprenticeship  is  enforced  in  the  case  of 
women  as  well  as  men.  In  New  York  there  is  a  large  Bohemian 
local  to  which  many  women  belong.  A  large  percentage  of 
these  women  are  married.  Contrary  to  their  custom  Jewish 
women  also  remain  in  the  trade  and  in  the  Union  after  mar 
riage.  The  officers  say  that  the  women  do  this  in  order  to  re 
tain  the  rights  to  the  benefits  of  the  organization.  As  a  rule 
the  women  are  not  easily  reached  by  the  Union,  although  there 
are  some  who  are  better  unionists  than  the  men.  They  belong 
to  the  same  locals  with  the  men,  are  far  outnumbered,  and  do 
not  come  to  meetings  regularly,  but  send  their  books  by  some 
man  friend.  They  have  no  influence  in  shaping  the  policy  of 
the  larger  locals  or  of  the  general  body.  In  contrast  with 
these  facts,  given  by  leading  officials  of  the  Union,  is  the  con 
dition  of  a  large  strippers'  local  in  Boston,  which  is  not  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Cigar  Makers  but  is  recognized  by  the 
Federation  of  Labor.  It  has  a  membership  of  over  seven  hun 
dred  girls,  practically  all  those  in  the  local  trade;  it  is  officered 
and  managed  entirely  by  women,  many  of  whom  are  of  Jewish 
parentage.  The  organization  of  the  Union  was  occasioned  by 
dissatisfaction  felt  in  one  or  two  factories  over  the  way  in 
which  the  tobacco  was  weighed  out  to  the  girls.  It  was 
thought  that  the  weighers  were  dishonest  in  not  giving  full 
record  for  the  weight  actually  stripped;  and  in  order  to  right 

(490) 


49 

this  grievance  the  girls  struck,  organized  a  Union  and  demand 
ed  an  arrangement  by  which  each  girl  could  see  that  proper 
weight  was  accredited  to  her.  This  reasonable  demand  was 
acceded  to  and,  contrary  to  the  usual  experience,  the  organiza 
tion  did  not  die  as  soon  as  the  immediate  grievance  was  re 
moved,  but  enlarged  its  membership, to  include  all  eligible 
women  and  established  death  and  sick  benefits.  Meetings  are 
held  twice  a  month  and  outsiders  are  sometimes  asked  to  talk 
to  the  girls.  There  is  an  average  attendance  of  about  one  hun 
dred — a  good  percentage.  The  success  of  this  organization  is 
hard  to  understand  in  view  of  the  character  of  the  work,  which 
is  so  simple  that  it  can  be  learned  in  two  weeks.  The  favor 
able  conditions  are  the  following:  The  city  of  Boston  is  par 
ticularly  well  organized  with  wages  fifty  per  cent  higher  than 
in  New  York;  many  of  the  girls  in  the  business  come  from 
families  in  which  the  father  and  brothers  are  Union  cigar 
makers;  the  girls  have  the  advice  and  sympathy  of  the  Cigar 
Makers  and  modeled  their  constitution  upon  that  of  the  larger 
organization;  they  are  American  born  and  if  the  leaders  are 
typical  of  the  rank  and  file  they  are  intelligent  and  energetic; 
the  fact  that  they  have  their  own  local  gives  them  the  oppor 
tunity  to  develop  qualities  of  leadership  and  frees  them  from 
the  constraint  of  a  masculine  majority. 

9.     THE  POTTER'S  UNION 

The  work  of  women  in  the  pottery  trade  is  not  the  same  as 
that  of  men;  according  to  the  secretary  of  the  Union  they  do 
decorating,  finishing-off ,  and  wareroom  work.  Three  years  ago 
it  was  estimated  that  there  were  6,000  in  the  business.1  As  in 
other  kinds  of  work,  the  men  are  skilled  workmen,  while  the 
women  are  not.  In  1901  it  was  estimated  the  national  Broth 
erhood  of  Operative  Potters  included  seventy  per  cent,  of  the 
trade,  that  five  per  cent,  were  in  other  organizations,  and  that 
twenty-five  per  cent,  were  not  organized.  The  membership  at 
present  is  about  8,000;  perhaps  ten  per  cent,  of  these  are 

of  the  Industrial  Commission,  14:  646. 

(490 


50 

women,  while  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  total  employees  in 
the  trade  are  of  this  sex.1  Women  have  been  admitted  to  the 
Union  only  within  the  last  three  years,  and  this,  according  to 
the  general  secretary,  explains  the  fact  that  they  do  noh  attend 
meetings  or  take  an  interest  in  Union  affairs.  They  are  organ 
ized  into  separate  locals,  which  they  officer  themselves  when 
they  are  sufficiently  numerous.  They  are  also  sent  as  delegates 
to  conventions  and  are  eligible  to  official  positions  but  have 
not  been  elected  to  such.  The  presence  of  women  in  the  or 
ganization  is  too  recent  to  admit  of  generalizations  concerning 
their  work.  It  is  a  trade  in  which  their  work  is  supplement 
ary.  They  have  responded  fairly  well  without  being  influenced 
by  necessities  of  the  label  shop,  which  does  not  exist  in  the 
trade, 

10.     THE  COMMERCIAL  TELEGRAPHERS'  UNION  OF  AMERICA 

This  Union  was  formed  in  July,  1903,  and  presents  no  pe 
culiar  features  of  organization.  Women  constitute  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  workers  of  the  trade  and  hold  the  easier  and  less 
well  paid  positions,  such  as  working  at  city  and  other  light 
lines.  They  are  not  considered  as  efficient  as  men.  They  are 
organized  in  the  same  locals  with  men  and  are  reported  as  com 
ing  to  meetings  less  regularly  and  ordinarily  taking  less  inter 
est  in  the  Union  than  the  men  do.  They  hold  local  offices  and 
nave  been  sent  as  delegates  to  conventions.  There  seems  to 
be  no  question  of  women's  underbidding  male  telegraphers. 

11.     THE  SHIRT,  WAIST,  AND  LAUNDRY  WORKERS'  INTERNATIONAL 

UNION 

Laundry  work  is  likely  to  involve  irregular  or  long  hours 
and  disagreeable,  if  not  unsanitary,  conditions.  The  rush  of 
the  last  days  of  the  week  often  necessitates  working  into  the 
night,  making  a  day  of  twelve  or  fourteen  hours  ;  the  heat  of 
the  ironing  room,  the  steam  and  slop  of  the  wash  room,  and 
the  germs  from  soiled  clothing,  all  menace  the  health  of  labor- 

1  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  17:  183. 

(492) 


51 

ers  in  the  trade.1  These  evils  can  only  be  overcome  by  great 
care  upon  the  part  of  the  managers,  and  give  sufficient  occa 
sion,  regardless  of  the  question  of  wages,  for  the  organization 
of  employees,  and  for  the  enactment  of  laws  regulating  the 
trade.  In  Great  Britain,  in  1895,  laundries  were  brought  under 
the  provisions  of  the  factory  acts,  hours  were  limited,  and  to 
the  ordinary  regulations  regarding  sanitation  and  accidents, 
were  added  provisions  for  minimizing  heat  in  the  ironing  rooms, 
and  other  similar  requirements.  Some  American  States  have 
laws  regulating  the  trade,  but  few  are  at  all  adequate  in  scope 
or  well  enforced.  Trade  unionism  likewise  has  failed  to 
effect  any  but  the  most  limited  results  in  this  field.  It  is  es 
timated  that  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  employees  in  laundries 
are  women.  Their  work  is  fairly  distinct  from  that  of  men, 
but  in  some  tasks  they  compete.  Men  are  engineers,  and  do 
machine  washing  and  wringing,  and  most  of  the  hand  work  on 
shirt  fronts.  Other  machine  ironing  on  shirts  is  done  by  girls, 
as  is  mangle  work,  which  may  be  learned  in  a  couple  of  hours. 
Girls  who  have  some  skill  tend  the  collar  machine  ;  there  are 
ordinarily  about  one  third  as  many  girls  on  hand  ironing  as 
men.  In  shirt  factories  girls  do  all  the  work  but  cutting.  On 
the  whole,  men's  tasks  are  heavier,  and  in  some  cases,  more 
skilled  than  those  of  the  women. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  Union  includes  workers  in  shirt  fac 
tories  as  well  as  laundries.  In  1901  the  Union  claimed  a  mem 
bership  of  7,000  ;  at  its  best  it  constituted  20  per  cent,  of  the 
total  workers  in  the  trade,  but  in  the  spring  of  1904  it  had  fal 
len  to  seven  per  cent.2  If  the  preponderance  of  women  in  the 
trade  hinders  the  progress  of  the  Union,  it  is  not  proved  by  any 
testimony  obtained.  In  large  places  women  have  their  sepa 
rate  locals,  officered  by  their  own  members.  An  exception  to 
this  rule  is  that  female  hand  ironers  belong  to  a  local  with  men 
of  the  same  class.  In  smaller  places  locals  are  mixed.  The 
fourth  vice  president  of  the  general  organization  is  a  woman; 

1  Journals  of  the  Union,  March,  May,  1904,  etc. 

2  President's  Page,  Official  Journal,  May,  1001. 

(493) 


52 

female  delegates  are  sent  to  conventions;  and  there  are  a  few 
women  organizers. 

12.     THE  BAKERY  AND  CONFECTIONERY  WORKERS 

This  Union  includes  journeymen  working  at  the  following 
branches  of  the  trade  :  bread  and  cake,  pie,  cracker  or  pretzel 
baking,  confectionery  and  pastry  cooking,  candy  and  ice  cream 
making  ;  also  salesmen  of  bakery  goods,  bakery  wagon  drivers, 
packers  and  helpers  in  candy  factories.  The  line  between  men's 
and  women's  work  is  not  distinctly  drawn  ;  but,  in  general, 
men  do  the  skilled  and  heavier  tasks  and  receive  higher  wages. 
There  are  a  few  female  bakers,  but  women's  work  is  chiefly 
candy  dipping,  cracker  packing,  and  other  light  tasks.  Condi 
tions  in  these  trades  have  been  in  many  places  most  objection 
able  ;  long  hours  for  seven  days  or  nights  a  week,  in  under 
ground  rooms,  are  the  rule  in  many  localities.  Legislation  has 
remedied  some  of  these  evils,  but  the  Union  seeks  a  more  com 
plete  reform.  In  candy  making  young  girls  work  for  low  wag 
es  under  unsanitary  conditions,  and  often  acquire  serious  skin 
diseases  from  handling  the  goods.  The  Union  has  about  22,000 
members,  2  000  of  whom  are  women.  They  are  organized  both 
separately  and  in  mixed  locals.  Dues  and  benefits  for  women 
are  one-half  those  for  men.  No  national  offices  are  held  by 
women,  but  at  the  last  convention  the  candy  dippers  and  crack 
er  packers  were  represented  by  two  delegates  each.  Officers 
say  that  women  are  more  easily  organized  than  men,  but  that 
they  do  not  "stick",  that  they  fall  away  after  a  short  time  owing 
to  lack  of  interest. 

13.     THE  INTERNATIONAL  UNION  OF  BUILDING  EMPLOYEES 

The  organization  generally  known  as  the  Janitors'  Union 
has  been  formed  so  recently  that  little  can  be  said  of  its  activ 
ities.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  among  its  purposes,  as 
stated  in  the  preamble  of  the  constitution,  are  that  of  encour 
aging  a  higher  standard  of  skill  among  its  members,  and  that 
of  raising  wages.  The  emphasis  laid  upon  the  subject  of  skill 

(494) 


53 

is  unusual.  The  association  is  composed  of  janitors,  cleaners, 
inside  watchmen,  and  elevator  boys.  The  duties  of  janitors  in 
office  buildings,  apartment  houses,  and  schools  differ  consider 
ably,  so  that  in  the  larger  towns  they  are  organized  separately. 
Engineers  in  such  buildings  have  their  own  organization. 

Women  and  men  do  the  same  kinds  of  work,  but  men  have 
more  responsible  positions.  In  Chicago,  as  a  part  of  the  gen 
eral  Union  movement,  a  local  of  office  building  janitresses  was 
formed  in  order  to  limit  hours  of  work  and  increase  wages. 
The  occupants  of  offices  do  not  leave  their  rooms  till  six  or 
seven  in  the  evening,  and  the  cleaners  must  then  take  posses 
sion  and  finish  their  work  by  twelve;  one  woman  cleans  a  large 
number  of  rooms  and  hence  must  rush  in  order  to  finish  her 
task.  For  this  work  eighteen  cents  an  hour  is  paid,  but  with 
fifteen  cents  deducted  for  car  fare  and  a  cup  of  coffee  to  rouse 
lagging  energy,  there  is  left  not  more  than  90  cents  net  for  the 
six  hours.  Married  women  or  widows  do  this  work  because  it 
allows  them  the  day  at  home  in  which  to  look  after  their  fami 
lies,  although  many  of  them  have  day  work  also. 

The  rate  of  eighteen  cents  was  only  gained  after  the  Union 
was  formed.  Janitresses  in  Milwaukee  formerly  got  seventy- 
five  cents  for  working  from  half-past  five  to  half-past  nine  in 
the  morning  and  from  half-past  five  to  ten  in  the  evening. 
The  Union  enforced  one  set  of  hours — from  five  to  ten  p.  m.— 
and  got  an  increase  of  two  cents  an  hour.  The  Chicago  Union 
was  formed  before  the  national  association  came  into  existence, 
and  has  done  good  work  in  interesting  women  in  the  move 
ment.  There  is  a  membership  of  500  out  of  a  possible  2,000. 
One  of  the  great  difficulties  is  that  of  getting  at  the  foreign 
speaking  women.  Many  of  the  office  cleaners  are  Swedes,  and 
a  Swedish  organizer  speaks  to  them  in  their  own  tongue,  but 
Bohemians  and  other  nationalities  are  more  difficult  to  attract. 


(495) 


54 

14.     THE  AMALGAMATED   MEAT  CUTTERS,  AND  BUTCHER  WORK 
MEN'S  UNION 

Women  workers  in  the  packing  houses  may  be  divided  into 
three  groups:  those  whose  tasks  are  performed  by  women  only; 
those  who  compete  with  men  directly  in  work  considered 
equally  suitable  for  the  one  or  the  other  sex;  those  who,  with 
in  the  last  year  or  two,  are  making  their  way  into  fields  re 
garded  as  men's  domain. 

The  processes  carried  on  by  the  first  class  of  workers  in 
clude  such  tasks  as  painting  and  labeling  packed  cases  of  meat 
products,  sewing  up  hams  in  canvas  bags,  filling  fancy  boxes 
with  chipped  beef  and  jars  with  pickles  and  olives.  All  of  this 
work  is  light,  and  is  carried  on  in  clean,  quiet  rooms  by  young 
American  born  women.  In  the  canning  department  both  men 
and  women  work,  tending  the  machines  that  make  the  cases, 
and  filling  these  receptacles  by  hand  or  machine.  The  rooms 
are  hot  and  noisy,  owing  to  the  presence  of  machinery,  and  the 
labor  is  heavy  and  disagreeable.  The  workers  are  practically 
all  foreigners.  Quite  recently  Lithuanian  and  Polish  women 
have  been  employed  in  the  sausage  department,  and  here  small 
numbers  are  found  trimming  meat  under  necessarily  disagree 
able  conditions,  in  a  room  full  of  men.  Their  competition  is 
resented  by  the  male  workers  as  a  means  used  by  the  employ 
ers  to  reduce  wages. 

Upon  the  suggestion  of  the  officers  of  the  American  Fed 
eration  of  Laboi1,  the  representatives  of  a  few  local  organiza 
tions  of  butchers,  in  the  fall  of  1896,  formed  the  Meat  Cutters' 
and  Butchers'  Union,  and  in  the  following  January  obtained  a 
charter  from  the  federal  body.1  For  the  next  few  years  the 
Union's  progress  was  slow,  owing  to  general  indifference  and 
timidity,  arid  to  several  specific  hindrances.  At  the  convention 
of  1898  there  were  twenty-four  locals  represented,  and  in  1904 
there  were  nearly  three  hundred.  Four  of  these  Unions  are 
composed  of  women — largely  the  American  girls  wrho  do  the 

journal  of  Amalgamated  Meat  Cutters  and  Butcher  Workmen,  May,  1904. 

(496) 


55 

lighter  work  in  the  packing  houses.  The  first  local  was  formed 
in  Chicago  in  1902,  under  the  influence  of  the  head  worker  of 
the  social  settlement  of  the  stock  yards  neighborhood,  and  was 
carried  along  by  the  wave  of  Union  enthusiasm  until  its  num 
bers  reached  a  figure  between  five  and  six  hundred.  Among 
these  converts  were  many  young  girls  who  had  little  compre 
hension  of  what  they  wrere  doing,  and  who,  as  the  excitement 
died  away  and  a  counter-current  of  feeling  arose,  became  indif 
ferent  or  timid,  and  were  unwilling  to  keep  up  their  payments 
of  fifty  cents  per  month,  or  more.  Their  withdrawal  reduced 
the  membership  to  less  than  two  hundred,  and  the  present 
average  attendance  at  meetings  is  thirty  or  forty.  At  the  last 
convention  of  the  general  organization  the  representatives  of 
the  women's  locals  won  the  respect  of  the  male  delegates  by 
their  dignified  bearing,  and  by  the  spirit  and  firmness  with 
which  they  opposed  the  plan  to  prohibit  women  from  working 
in  the  sausage  rooms.  None  of  the  female  meat  trimmers 
were  connected  with  the  organization,  but  the  Union  girls  felt 
the  responsibility  of  representing  the  interests  of  their  sex  and 
of  insisting  upon  living  up  to  the  Union  principle  of  equality 
of  treatment  for  all  members.  The  feeling  of  the  girls  carried 
the  convention,  but  the  sausage  butchers  are  still  much  dis 
turbed  at  the  presence  of  women  in  their  field  of  labor,  where 
the  work  has  been  so  subdivided  that  a  stoat  peasant  woman 
is  practically  as  satisfactory  as  an  experienced  man.  Whether 
female  laborers  .will  continue  in  this  department  of  work  re 
mains  to  be  seen;  the  repulsive  nature  of  the  materials  han 
dled  will  certainly  keep  out  American  women,  unless  there 
occurs  a  marked  degradation  of  the  American  standard  of  living 
and  decency;  but  repeated  reinforcements  of  foreigners  may 
allow  a  considerable  increase  of  peasant  women  who  can  with 
difficulty  be  brought  into  the  Union.  The  unskilled  character 
of  the  work,  and  the  constant  stream  of  immigrants  flowing 
into  the  great  western  cities  make  the  case  of  the  girl  workers 
in  the  Meat  Cutters'  Union  a  discouraging  one,  but  those  who 
have  been  associated  with  them  during  the  short  life  of  their 

(497) 


56 

locals  have  faith  that  their  good  sense  and  unselfishness,  and 
the  training  gained  in  concerted  action,  will  prove  the  basis  of 
a  successful  organization,  able  with  the  help  of  the  male  work 
ers  to  meet  the  demand  of  their  employers  with  firmness  and 
strength. 

15.     THE  TEACHERS'  FEDERATION  OF  CHICAGO 

The  connection  of  this  association  of  professional  women 
with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  an  organization  made 
up  of  hand  workers,  whose  occupations  are  entirely  different  in 
nature  and  surrounding  circumstances,  is  an  anomaly  that  re 
quires  explanation.  The  teachers  justify  their  action  in  seek 
ing  this  affiliation  not  by  any  strained  analogies,  but  by  in 
sisting  upon  the  desirability  of  bringing  the  schools  into  direct 
contact  writh  the  people  who  patronize  them  and  of  preventing 
the  adoption  of  "monarchical  measures"  of  school  policy  by  co 
operating  with  this  body  of  democratic  voters.  It  is  feared  that 
the  present  undemocratic  organization  of  politics  and  industry 
is  passing  into  the  school  system  and  the  teachers'  association, 
deprecating  such  tendencies,  uses  all  its  energies  in  opposing 
legislation  or  official  regulations  which  will  result  in  centraliz 
ing  authority  and  responsibility.  In  1899  the  school  commis 
sion  reported  in  favor  of  a  system  giving  autocratic  authority 
to  the  school  commissioner  ;  on  protest  of  the  teachers  the  rec 
ommendation  was  voted  down.  The  Federation  is  now  push 
ing  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  school  law  for  Chicago  which 
provides  for  a  mere  certain  system  of  promotions,  limits  the 
number  of  pupils  for  one  teacher,  gives  the  teachers  a  voice  in 
deciding  upon  the  incompetency  of  fellow  teachers,  and  plans 
local  and  central  teachers'  councils  for  discussing  school  mat 
ters.  These  same  measures  look  to  the  prevention  of  favorit 
ism,  increasing  salaries,  improving  conditions  of  work,  and  giv 
ing  the  teachers  an  influence  in  the  management  of  the  schools. 
The  best  known  work  of  this  association  is  the  famous  suit  oc 
casioned  by  a  cut  of  salaries  at  the  beginning  of  the  calender 
and  fiscal  year,  which  the  teachers  claimed  was  illegal  because 

(498) 


57 

they  had  been  hired  at  a  given  salary  for  the  school  year.  The 
suit  brought  up  the  question  of  the  cause  of  the  cut,  which  the 
Board  claimed,  was  lack  of  funds.  Upon  investigation  by  the 
teachers'  attorneys  five  great  corporations  were  found  to  be  de 
linquent  as  tax  payers  and  the  court  compelled  the  taxing 
authorities  to  collect  $2,000,000  for  the  year  1900.  A  tempora 
ry  injunction  stopped  collection  after  $600,000  had  been  ob 
tained  and  the  Board  disposed  of  this  money  in  other  ways  than 
upon  deficient  salaries.  The  court  decided  that  the  salaries 
should  be  paid,  but  appeal  will  be  made  to  the  higher  courts. 
Altogether,  the  activity  of  this  association  is  notable. 

16.     THE  WOMEN'S  UNION  LABEL  LEAGUE 

That  trade  unionists  do  not  live  up  to  their  policy  of  pur 
chasing,  where  possible,  only  label  goods,  is  a  statement  often 
made  both  by  outsiders  and  by  Union  officials  themselves,  and 
that  this  is  true  in  one  city  at  least  has  been  proved  by  an  un 
prejudiced  investigator.1  Especially  are  the  women  of  wage 
workers'  families  accused  of  unfaithfulness  in  this  regard. 
Since  the  outlay  of  a  large  part  of  the  income  of  American 
families  of  all  classes  is  determined  by  the  wife  and  mother, 
this  dereliction  on  her  part  is  of  considerable  significance  to 
those  Unions  which  lay  stress  upon  the  demand  for  their  label 
and  ask  special  recognition  of  their  cause  from  their  brethren 
of  other  organizations.  The  demand  has  been  none  too  suc 
cessful,  and  now  the  interest  of  the  women  has  been  appealed 
to  directly  by  a  women's  organization  for  the  special  purpose 
of  emphasizing  the  importance  of  the  label.  The  association 
is  known  as  the  Women's  International  Union  Label  League. 
It  was  formed  in  1899  and  its  object,  according  to  the  general 
secretary,  is  "to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  wage  earner;  to 
discountenance  the  sweat  shop  methods  of  production  by  aid 
ing  and  encouraging  Union  made  goods;  to  gain  a  universal 
eight  hour  day;  to  abolish  child  labor;  to  secure  equal  pay  for 

1  Jas.  Boyle,  in  a  study  made  in  Milwaukee,  under  the  direction  of   the  Depart 
ment  of  Economics  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 

(499) 


58 

equal  work  regardless  of  sex;  to  aid  the  Sunday  and  early  clos 
ing  movement;  to  sustain  fair  employers  and  to  aid  in  the 
study  of  social  economics." 

The  activities  of  the  society  are  in  fact  limited  as  a  rule  to 
the  encouragement  of  the  use  of  label  goods.  While  sympa 
thizers  outside  of  the  class  of  wage  workers  are  eligible,  the 
actual  membership  is  largely  made  up  of  wives  and  daughters 
of  Unionists  and  of  women  and  men  belonging  to  Unions.  The 
organization  of  the  society  is  modeled  upon  that  of  the  ordina 
ry  Union,  with  provision  for  local,  State,  and  International 
bodies.  Dues  are  ten  cents  a  month  plus  forty  cents  a  year  for 
the  international  treasurer,  besides  a  death  assessment  of  five 
cents,  which  is  the  basis  of  a  benefit  of  $50.  The  society  has  a 
membership  of  3,000,  is  recognized  by  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor,  is  encouraged  by  all  the  Unions  pursuing  the  label 
policy,  and  is  apparently  doing  good  educational  work  in  rous 
ing  an  interest  in  the  general  condition  of  labor  and  in  teach 
ing  the  sacrifice  of  personal  taste  for  principle.  The  possible 
development  of  the  League,  like  that  of  the  label  policy  to 
which  it  is  subsidiary,  is  not  likely  to  be  of  great  significance 
or  permanence,  for  the  number  of  consumption  goods  to  which 
the  label  can  be  effectively  applied  is  too  limited.  For  the 
manufacturers  of  all  goods  not  meant  for  immediate  consump 
tion,  for  producers  of  expensive  commodities  of  all  kinds,  the 
label  has  no  value  as  an  advertising  medium,  and  for  most 
large  producers  it  is  of  little  significance.  Within  a  limited 
field,  however,  it  does  influence  consumption  and  secures  bet 
ter  conditions  for  the  wage  worker.  Hence  all  Union  sympa 
thizers  may  well  lend  their  aid  to  the  Label  League. 

17.     WOMEN'S  TRADE  UNION  LEAGUE 

More  recent  even  than  the  label  society,  and  somewhat 
similar  in  purpose  both  to  that  organization  and  to  the  Consum 
ers'  League,  is  the  Woman's  Trade  Union  League,  which  pro 
poses  to  make  effective  the  sympathy  and  interest  of  women  out 
side  of  the  wage  earning  class  by  organizing  them  with  women 

OG) 


59 

Unionists  for  work  supplementary  to  that  of  the  Unions.  The 
organization  was  formed  during  the  convention  of  the  Federa 
tion  of  Labor  in  Boston,  in  1903,  as  a  result  of  the  efforts  of  an 
enthusiastic  sympathizer  and  a  capable  Union  woman.  The 
idea  is  copied  from  that  of  the  British  association  of  the  same 
name.  It  is  believed  that  a  goodly  number  of  women  who  are 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  women  wage  earners  would  be  glad 
to  assist  in  bringing  before  them  the  advantages  of  organiza 
tion  and  in  arousing  the  sympathy  and  cooperation  of  all  class 
es  for  Trade  Unionism.  The  fullest  cooperation  with  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  and  with  existing  Unions  is  de 
sired,  for  the  League  in  no  way  proposes  to  take  the  place  of 
any  of  these  organizations.  A  secretary  for  the  State,  the  unit 
of  organization,  will  be  expected  to  go  out  into  all  districts 
where  trade  conditions  are  known  to  be  bad,  to  talk  with  the 
women  employees,  tell  them  of  the  advantages  of  combined  ac 
tion,  and  organize  them  or  prepare  the  way  for  the  organizer 
of  the  given  trade.  Speakers  capable  of  presenting  the  cause 
of  Unionism  in  a  convincing  way  are  to  be  sent  to  women's 
clubs  to  do  something  toward  counteracting  the  middle  class 
prejudices  against  the  labor  movement.  Investigation  of  dele 
terious  conditions  of  work  and  low  wages  has  been  already  be 
gun,  the  efforts  of  the  Illinois  Branch  having  resulted  in  some 
reforms  in  both  respects.  The  organization  begins  its  work  at 
a  time  when,  perhaps,  it  is  most  needed,  but  when  it  will  be 
difficult  to  effect  large  results  on  account  of  the  present  hostile 
attitude  of  the  public  to  Trade  Unions  and  the  beginning  of  a 
period  of  lower  profits  for  employers. 

18.     WOMEN'S  UNIONS  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  close  this  study  by  sketching 
briefly  the  history  of  women's  organizations  in  Great  Britain, 
not  only  because  industrial  organization  in  the  two  countries 
is  very  similar,  but  also  because  there  are  in  the  older  country 
several  conditions  that  are  favorable  to  a  successful  labor 
movement  among  female  wage  earners.  Of  these  the  most 

(SOI) 


60 

important  are  that,  since  the  establishment  of  the  factory  sys 
tem,  women  have  been  employed  in  industry  in  great  numbers; 
that  Trade  Unionism  among  men  has  here  its  greatest  power 
and  most  elaborate  organization,  and  that  there  exists  a  liberal 
public  opinion  regarding  women's  sphere  of  action.  These 
favorable  influences  have  been  without  result,  as  will  be  seen 
from  a  brief  sketch  of  the  movement.  The  earliest  activity 
among  women  workers  as  a  class  occurred  in  1827,  after  the 
repeal  of  the  Combination  Laws,  and  at  a  time  when  the  cotton 
spinners  were  making  pretentious  efforts  to  form  a  national 
organization.  Women's  branches  were  formed  and  had  a  brief 
existence.1  In  1833-34,  a  great  mania  for  Trade  Unions  swept 
over  the  British  working  people;  organizations  sprang  up  in 
the  most  unskilled  and  insignificant  trades,  and  the  "  Grand 
National  Trades  Union"  promised  to  create  a  solidarity  of 
interest  and  activity  among  the  wage  earners  of  the  United 
Kingdom.  It  did  actually  enroll  incredibly  long  lists  of  labor 
ers  of  all  sorts.2  Women's  Unions  seem  to  have  formed  a  part 
of  this  sporadic  growth,  for  brief  references  in  Union  records 
tell  of  the  short-lived  activity  of  the  "Grand  Lodge  of  Operat 
ive  Bonnet  Makers",  "Female  Gardeners",  and  "Female  Tai- 
loresses",  and  others.  But  the  whole  growth  was  premature 
and  unsubstantial  and  died  down  in  a  night;  and  while  the 
healthy  roots  of  the  more  vigorous  men's  organizations  re 
tained  their  life,  the  women's  Unions  left  no  trace  but  a  few 
high-sounding  names.  For  the  next  forty  years — the  middle 
third  of  the  century — there  appears  to  have  been  a  total  apathy 
among  women  workers  in  regard  to  bettering  their  condition 
by  means  of  organization.  Their  welfare,  however,  was  looked 
after  by  that  combination  of  public-spirited  men  of  all  classes 
who,  against  great  opposition^  succeeded  during  this  period  in 
laying  down  the  main  outlines  of  the  factory  code.  The  policy 
of  the  labor  leaders  in  these  years  is  of  especial  interest,  be 
cause  of  the  peculiar  false  interpretation  since  put  upon  it 

1  Women's  Trade  Union  League  Tract:  Women  as  Trade  Unionists. 

2  Webb,  S.  and  B.     History  of  Trade  Unionism,  121. 

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61 

Up  to  1833  the  advocates  of  short  hours  for  factory  operatives 
as  a  class  had  covered  their  far-reaching  design  with  the  plea 
of  care  for  the  welfare  of  the  child  workers;  and  when  it  was 
found  that  the  reduction  of  hours  for  children  had  been  so 
arranged  as  not  to  interfere  with  long  hours  for  adults,  they 
frankly  admitted  their  real  purpose  and  demanded  restriction 
of  motive  power.  This  action  was  too  radical  for  popular  ap 
proval  and  the  labor  leaders  then  took  up  the  advocacy  of 
shorter  hours  for  women  as  another  possible  method  of  lim 
iting  the  working  day  for  all,  and  fought  their  battle  "  behind 
the  women's  petticoats"  from  1841  to  1847.1  Again,  in  the 
seventies,  a  similar  struggle  was  made  for  shorter  hours 
for  women,  and  the  Unionists  were  accused  of  being 
desirous  of  limiting  women's  working  hours  in  order  to 
hamper  their  competition  and  thus  supplant  them.  This  ac 
cusation  was  a  perverse  interpretation  of  the  action  of  the 
Unionists,  whose  motive,  though  selfish,  was  quite  different 
from  that  attributed  to  them.  The  unexpected  opposition  that 
they  met  from  the  women  workers  and  their  friends  brings  us 
to  the  consideration  of  the  first  permanent  organization  of  fe 
male  wage  workers.  Ephemeral  Trade  Unions  had  appeared  in 
this  long  period  but  had  all  collapsed  after  a  brief  existence. 
In  1872,  there  was  established  the  first  durable  Union  for  wo 
men  alone  ;  and  in  1874  Mrs.  Patterson,  an  educated  and  capa 
ble  working  woman,  having  seen  in  New  York  the  successful 
working  of  a  Union  of  female  umbrella  makers,  undertook  the 
organization  of  various  classes  of  London  girls.  She  formed 
associations  of  book-binders,  upholsterers,  laundresses,  and  oth 
ers.  At  the  same  time,  with  the  help  of  a  number  of  women  of 
leisure  and  public  spirit,  she  founded  the  Women's  Protective 
and  Provident  League,  a  society  whose  aim  was  to  aid  poorly 
paid  female  wage  earners  to  better  their  industrial  condition, 
especially  by  means  of  organization.  Mrs.  Patterson  and  her 
associates  were  capable  and  sincere,  but  they  held  such  radical 
opinions  as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  electoral  ballot  for  women 

1  Hutchins,  B.  L.,  and  Harrison,  G.     A  History  of  Factory  Legislation,  65. 

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62 

that  they  were  led  to  misinterpret  the  action  of  the  Unionists 
in  the  short  hours'  movement.  They  opposed  all  legislation 
concerning  hours  and  conditions  of  work  for  women  with  a 
vigor  that  was  most  disconcerting  to  those  statesmen  who  con 
sidered  themselves  the  special  guardians  of  the  interests  of  the 
wage  workers. 1  This  middle  class  view,  that  women  should 
possess  the  freedom  to  determine  their  own  conditions  of  work 
directly  by  contract,  since  they  had  no  voice  in  making  laws  to 
improve  them,  involved  of  course,  the  bad  logic  of  using  the 
word  freedom  to  indicate  two  very  different  conditions,  that  of 
the  comfortable  middle  class  house-wife  or  the  woman  of  inde 
pendent  means,  and  also  that  of  the  resourceless,  untrained 
factory  operative  competing  for  the  chance  to  earn  her  daily 
bread  in  an  overcrowded  market.  Fortunately,  this  conflict 
between  the  leaders  of  the  women's  organizations  and  the  men's 
Unions  has  ceased,  and  the  society  for  promoting  women's 
Unions,  under  the  unequivocal  name  of  the  Women's  Trade 
Union  League,  now  works  in  harmony  and  even  in  co-operation 
with  the  men's  Unions. 

The  growth  of  the  women's  associations  formed  in  the  sev 
enties  was  slow,  and  most  of  them  led  a  precarious  existence, 
viewed  with  suspicion  or  indifference  by  those  whom  they  were 
meant  to  aid  and  scorned  by  the  vigorous  organizations  of  the 
men.  Only  gradually  have  male  Unionists  come  to  realize 
that  women  are  a  permanent  factor  in  the  labor  question  and 
that  they  must  be  taken  account  of  in  the  program  of  labor  or 
ganizations.  The  revival  of  Unionism  in  1889  and  1890  in 
cluded  a  liberalizing  of  the  Unions  in  many  directions,  and 
among  other  reforms  was  a  change  in  their  attitude  toward  wo 
men's  organizations.  Although  at  first  admitted  only  grudging 
ly  and  ungraciously  to  the  Trade  Union  Congress2 — a  federal  as 
sembly  corresponding  roughly  to  our  Federation  of  Labor  Con 
ventions — the  women's  representatives  now  enjoy  a  hearty 
welcome,  if  not  an  influential  position,  in  this  body.  At  each 

1  Hutchins,  B.  L.  and  Harrison,  G.  History  of  Factory  Legislation,  189,  193. 

2  Webb,  S.  and  B.,  History  of  Trade  Unionism,  406—408. 

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63 

of  these  meetings  for  the  last  few  years  there  has  been  held  a 
conference  of  delegates  from  the  trades  in  which  women  work, 
and  also  public  rallies  for  the  purpose  of  interesting  the  women 
of  the  locality  in  the  subject  of  organization.  Yet  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  the  small  number  of  representatives  of  wo 
men's  Unions  are  unable  to  bring  forward  and  force  upon  the 
attention  of  the  convention  important  questions  affecting  wo 
men's  interests.1 

There  are  two  types  of  Unions  to  which  British  women 
may  belong,  those  composed  of  women  exclusively  and  those 
including  both  sexes.  The  second  class  is  by  far  the  most  im 
portant;  in  1897  only  twenty-five  out  of  a  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine  Unions  with  women  members  were  composed  exclusively 
of  women,  and  of  these  twenty-five  the  greater  part  were  of  re 
cent  growth.2  In  1896  the  women  in  the  mixed  locals  consti 
tuted  93.6  per  cent,  of  the  total  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  es 
timated  that  only  eleven  per  cent,  of  the  1,004,144  women  in 
factories  and  workshops  were  in  Unions.3  The  organizations 
composed  entirely  of  women  are  confined  largely  to  London, 
and  have  often  been  formed  under  stress  of  indignation  over 
some  particular  grievance.4  The  enthusiasm  following  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Dockers'  strike  in  1889  led  to  energetic  efforts  to 
organize  the  miserably  paid  tailoresses,  watch  makers,  and 
others  in  the  East  End  and  elsewhere."  But  the  apathy,  ignor 
ance,  timidity  and  extreme  poverty  were  too  fundamental  to 
be  overcome  by  any  amount  of  energy  upon  the  part  of  the  or 
ganizers,  and  the  exclusively  women's  associations  are  today  a 
quite  unimportant  part  of  British  Unionism.  Yet  the  real 
gains  of  the  few  existing  organizations  must  be  taken  into  ac 
count;  some  have  obtained  increases  in  wages  and  other  advan 
tages  and  all  do  something  to  educate  the  more  thoughtful  and 

1  Women's  Trade  Union  Review,  Oct.,  1901,  Jan.,  igo4;'etc. 

2  British  Board  of  Trade,  Labour  Correspondent,  Report  on  Trade  Unions,  1897, 
XXI. 

3  As  above,  Report  for  1896,  XVIII,  XV. 

4  Hobson,  J.  A.,  Problem  of  Poverty,  161. 

5  Women's  Trade  Union  Journal,  Aug.,  1889,  and  Oct.,  1889. 

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64 

serve  as  a  nucleus  round  which  the  very  ignorant  can  rally  in 
time  of  need.1  These  rather  puny  societies  of  women  monopo 
lize  the  attention  of  the  charitable  outsiders  who  wish  to  aid  in 
the  movement,  but  it  is  among  the  textile  workers  that  the 
largest  number  of  women  Unionists  are  found.2  The  cotton 
weavers  of  Lancashire  constitute  the  largest  part  of  these 
workers,3  being  about  80,000  out  of  120,000  female  Unionists. 
The  extraordinary  contrast  between  the  numbers  of  Union 
ists  in  Lancashire  and  in  other  parts  of  the  country  is  to  be  ex 
plained  by  the  following  facts:  women  have  been  organized  with 
men  since  1858;  the  management  of  these  Unions  has  been  par 
ticularly  wise;  women  customarily  continue  in  the  factories 
after  marriage,  and  hence  feel  the  necessity  of  improving  the 
conditions  of  their  life  work.  The  broad-mindedness  of  the 
men  in  thus  early  recognizing  the  importance  of  including 
their  sister  workers  is  less  astonishing  when  one  remembers 
that  the  larger  part  of  workers  in  the  cotton  mills  are  women, 
and  that  the  welfare  of  these  women  was  brought  into  public 
notice  by  the  earliest  factory  acts.  The  Scotch  and  Yorkshire 
textile  Unions  have  never  attained  any  strength,  probably  be 
cause  of  the  facts  that  the  leadership  has  not  been  so  able  and 
that  the  women  do  not  continue  work  after  marriage,  as  in 
Lancashire.  Men's  organizations  in  other  trades  are  making 
vigorous  efforts  to  gather  in  the  women  under  their  jurisdic 
tion.  The  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers  have  given  up  their  own 
social  evenings  and  substituted  teas  to  which  women  are  in 
vited  in  order  to  interest  them  in  the  Union;4  they  also  show 
their  good  will  by  electing  with  great  show  of  cordiality  tw^o 
women  delegates  to  their  trades  councils.  The  women  book- 
folders  are  about  to  be  made  a  branch  of  the  printers'  Union. 
The  necessity  of  incorporating  or  affiliating  the  women's  or 
ganizations  with  the  men's  Unions  in  the  same  trade  is  recog- 

1  Women's  Trade  Uunion  League  Tract,  Women  as  Trade  Unionists,  5-7. 

2  British  Board. of  Trade,  Labour  Correspondent,  Report  on  Trade  Unions,  1900, 
XXII,  gives  them  nine-tenths  of  the  membership  in  1900  and  1901. 

3  Tract  as  above. 

4  Women's  Trade  Union  Review,  Jan.,  1904,  3,  21,  19. 

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65 

nized  by  all  those  interested  in  the  welfare  of  women  wage 
workers.  Indeed,  it  is  declared  by  those  most  competent  to 
judge  that  unless  the  men  give  them  assistance,  the  organiza.- 
tion  of  female  laborers  is  doomed.1 

A  peculiar  feature  of  the  history  of  women's  Unions  in 
Great  Britain  has  been  the  persistent  efforts  of  women  of  the 
leisure  classes  to  aid  the  movement.  The  women's  Trade 
Union  League  employs  organizers  who  agitate  by  means  of 
noon  hour  and  evening  talks,  personal  visits,  investigations, 
etc. ;  and  teas  and  other  social  functions  are  employed  to  rouse 
or  maintain  interest  in  the  subject  of  organization.  Free  legal 
advice,  bringing  to  the  attention  of  factory  inspectors  infringe 
ments  of  the  law  and  working  for  new  legislation  are  other  fea 
tures  in  the  League's  program.  Altogether,  these  efforts  seem 
sane  and  helpful,  and  if  little  has  been  accomplished  it  is  due 
to  the  fundamental  difficulties  of  the  situation. 

19.     GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS 

1.  Character  of  the  organizations  in  which  women  are 
found  in  largest  numbers. 

Two  of  the  Unions  considered  are  among  the  oldest  and 
strongest  in  the  United  States  (Typographical  and  Cigar  Work 
ers'  Unions).  The  majority  of  the  organizations  are  compara 
tively  conservative  and  are  becoming  more  so;  in  spite  of  gen 
eral  declarations  of  strongly  socialistic  principles,  the  policy  is 
to  avoid  entanglement  in  practical  politics;  strikes  are  depre 
cated  in  public  print,  in  discussions  at  conventions  and  in  priv 
ate  conversation,  and  the  tendency  is  to  make  it  harder  all  the 
time  for  a  local  to  obtain  strike  benefits  from  the  general  or 
ganization  without  having  first  tried  all  other  means  of  adjust 
ment  of  difficulties.  All  Unions  are  realizing  the  advantages 
of  higher  dues  and  larger  benefits. 

2.  Women's  status  according  to  the  constitutions. 
Women  are  admitted  to  membership  upon  the  same  condi 
tions  as  men  and  are  given  the  samepower  of  voting.     They  are 

1  Women's  Trade  Union  Review,  Jan,  1904,  3,  21,  19. 

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66 

eligible  to  all  offices.  In  the  stronger  and  more  progressive 
Unions  there  are  the  same  fees,  dues,  and  benefits;  in  other 
trades  where  women's  wages  are  very  low,  both  dues  and 
benefits  are  smaller  for  women. 

3.  Organization  of  locals. 

Most  Unions  organize  their  locals  according  to  the  depart 
ment  of  work;  this  usually  results  in  associations  that  are  pre 
dominantly  male  or  female  (as  in  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Work 
ers);  in  trades  where  there  is  direct  competition,  mixed  locals 
are  the  rule  (as  in  the  Typographical  Union).  So  far  as  is 
known,  little  emphasis  has  been  laid  upon  the  general  advan 
tages  of  organizing  women  separately,  as  is  the  practice  in 
Great  Britain. 

4.  Women's  activities  in  the  Unions. 

In  women's  locals  they  usually  act  as  their  own  officers, 
except  where  they  are  quite  inexperienced  or  where  the  local 
is  very  large  and  requires  the  services  of  paid  officials  (as  in 
some  shoe  towns  in  New  England).  If  there  are  any  capable 
women  to  act  as  officers  of  the  local,  they  are  more  likely  to  be 
successful  in  keeping  up  the  interest  than  are  the  men  in  the 
same  positions.  Women  are  elected  as  delegates  to  conven 
tions  but  in  smaller  proportions  than  their  numbers  justify. 

In  conventions  they  serve  on  committees.  Several  trades 
have  women  organizers.  They  have  little  or  no  inflence  in  de 
termining  the  general  policy  of  the  Union. 

5.  General  estimate  of  women's  effectiveness  as  Unionists. 

They  are  not  as  well  organized  as  men — a  smaller  percent 
age  is  in  the  Union  than  is  in  the  trade.  Nearly  all  officials  tes 
tify  that  it  is  harder  to  organize  women  than  men;  a  number 
say  that,  when  they  once  do  understand  Union  principles  and 
become  interested  in  the  movement,  they  are  excellent  workers; 
there  is  a  unanimous  opinion  that  there  are  always  some  capa 
ble  workwomen  and  active  Unionists  whose  good  sense  and  en 
thusiasm  are  of  great  advantage  to  the  organization.  A  few  offi 
cials  say  they  are  easy  to  organize  but  hard  to  hold  up  to  pay- 

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67 

ing  their  dues  and  attending  meetings.  All  testimony  goes  to 
prove  that  they  do  not  attend  meetings  and  take  as  lively  an 
interest  in  local  affairs  as  men  do.  In  time  of  strike  the  wo 
men's  qualities  show  to  best  advantage;  they  are  ready  to  sacri 
fice  their  own  immediate  interest  and  to  hold  out  to  the  bitter 
end.  On  the  other  hand,  their  insistence  on  the  exact  claims 
made  by  them  often  tries  the  patience  of  the  general  officer 
who  manages  their  case.  They  are  as  ready  to  strike  as  men 
and  are  sometimes  misled  by  a  local  favorite  into  unwise  meas 
ures  of  this  kind.  In  the  excitement  of  a  strike  they  resort  to 
violence  even  as  their  brother  workmen  do. 

6.     Conditions  under  which  women's  organizations  flourish. 

Women's  locals  are  likely  to  be  prosperous  in  a  locality 
where  all  trades  are  well  organized  and  where  the  men  work 
ers  have  a  strong  Union  and  women's  work  is  supplementary 
rather  than  competitive  with  men's;  in  trades  where  a  com 
paratively  high  standard  of  intelligence  is  found;  where  wo 
men  are  American  born  (though  of  foreign  parents).  In  five 
of  the  most  important  Unions  studied  the  label  policy  is  of 
great  importance  (Boot  and  Shoe  Workers,  Cigar  Makers, 
Bookbinders,  Garment  Workers,  Ladies'  Garment  Workers). 
In  two  of  these  the  predominance  of  men  is  such  that  women 
may  be  brought  into  the  Union  and  forced  to  keep  up  their 
dues  without  their  having  any  interest  in  the  organization.  In 
these  locals,  while  a  majority  of  the  women  care  little  for  the 
Union  there  are  always  some  capable,  thoughtful  members 
who  are  active  in  Union  affairs. 

In  trades  where  men  are  not  largely  in  the  majority  the 
label  policy  probably  brings  into  existence  some  women's  locals 
that  would  not  be  formed  under  another  system,  for  it  is  to  the 
direct  advantage  of  the  men  to  rouse  the  interest  of  the  women 
in  the  Union;  and  the  employer,  if  convinced  that  it  is  to  his 
advantage  to  unionize  his  shop,  will  also  use  his  influence  or 
compulsion  to  bring  women  into  the  organization.  In  small 
shops  in  the  clothing  trade,  where  most  of  the  employees  were 

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68 

women  who  were  indifferent  to  the  Union,  the  locals  forced 
upon  them  by  tailors  or  masters  proved  short  lived;  but  where 
there  have  been  some  capable  independent  women  in  the  asso 
ciation  thus  formed,  the  seed  of  Unionism  has  fallen  on  good 
ground  and  successful  locals  grow  up.  In  the  Unions  men 
tioned  all  officials  emphasized  the  importance  of  the  label. 

7.  Conditions  unfavorable  to  women's  effectiveness  in 
Trade  Unions. 

Temporary  conditions:  In  the  "sweated"  trades  the  hope 
lessness,  low  degree  of  vitality  and  of  intelligence  resulting 
from  miserable  wages  and  bad  sanitary  conditions  are  an  ef 
fectual  bar  to  women's  activity  in  the  movement.  In  certain 
trades  the  fear  that  the  uniform  scale  demanded  by  the  Union 
for  men's  and  women's  work  will  result  in  the  displacement  of 
women  keeps  them  out  of  the  organization.  Women's  inter 
ests  have  not  been  as  carefully  looked  after  by  the  Unions  as 
those  of  men  and  less  effort  has  been  given  to  organizing  them. 
In  some  industries  women's  presence  in  large  numbers  is  re 
cent;  this  explains  in  part  the  indifference  of  the  men  and  the 
failure  of  the  women  to  realize  their  own  importance  in  the 
trade.  Mixed  locals  composed  largely  of  men  are  not  a  good 
tield  of  work  for  women;  they  are  too  timid  to  express  them 
selves  in  meetings  which  they  often  find  disagreeable  on  ac 
count  of  tobacco  smoke  and  tiresome  from  the  long  drawn  out 
discussions  in  which  they  have  no  part. 

Permanent  difficulties:  The  fact  that  in  a  number  of 
trades  men  are  required  to  pass  an  apprenticeship  of  several 
years  gives  them  a  more  vital  interest  in  the  trade  than  wo 
men,  who  learn  a  single  process  and  may  never  become  identi 
fied  with  one  trade,  bat  pass  from  one  to  another  industry  do 
ing  unskilled  tasks  in  each.  In  many  trades  the  majority  of 
women  are  young  girls  who  could  not  be  expected  to  consider 
their  industrial  situation  as  a  very  serious  matter.  Women 
have  more  home  interests  than  men  and  find  there  both  duties 
and  diversions,  which  men  must  seek  outside  and  which  they 


69 

find  in  their  Union.  Women  have  less  vitality  than  men  and 
attendance  upon  meetings  and  other  activities  carried  on  after 
the  day's  work  is  done  means  a  greater  effort  for  them  than  do 
like  exertions  for  men.  The  fact  that  a  large  number  of  wo 
men  wage  earners  are  not  dependent  upon  their  own  efforts 
for  a  livelihood  makes  them  less  anxious  to  struggle  for  a  liv 
ing  wage.  Many  women  hesitate  to  join  a  Union  because  they 
do  not  wish  to  be  identified  with  the  laboring  classes.  Of  more 
importance  than  all  other  considerations  is  the  fact  that  most 
women  look  upon  factory  work  as  a  temporary  employment 
filling  up  the  time  between  school  and  marriage;  this  naturally 
results  in  an  unwillingness  to  sacrifice  any  present  for  a  future 
good,  as  is  often  necessary  in  the  Union,  or  to  give  time  and 
energy  to  build  up  an  organization  with  which  they  will  be 
identified  but  a  few  years.  That  some  women  do  not  marry 
and  that  others  go  back  to  the  factory  after  marriage  does  not 
at  all  prove  that  they  had  not  expected  to  give  up  work  for 
home  duties;  many  unforeseen  events  may  prevent  a  woman's 
following  the  ordinary  vocations  of  the  home  and  many  a  wo 
man  who  considers  the  factory  unattractive  in  her  youth,  in 
later  years  finds  the  standard  of  living  afforded  by  her  hus 
band's  wages  quite  inadequate  to  satisfy  her  ambitions  and  the 
dull  household  routine  less  endurable  than  that  of  the  shop. 


70 

NOTE. — This  investigation  has  been  confined,  as  indicated 
above,  to  the  dozen  important  unions  connected  with  the  Am 
erican  Federation  of  Labor  which  have  women  members,  not 
only  because  these  include  a  very  large  part  of  the  organized 
female  wage  earners,  but  also  because  they  present  the  essen 
tial  facts  in  the  problem  of  organizing  women;  moreover,  the 
difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  obtaining  information  from  small 
independent  organizations  are  very  great  on  account  of  a  lack 
of  complete  lists  of  those  outside  the  "Federation"  and  of  the 
suspicion  or  indifference  of  local  officers  with  whom  the  in 
vestigator  can  not  come  into  personal  relation.  The  officers  of 
the  large  organizations  are  accustomed  to  receiving  the  in 
quiries  of  students,  and  have  in  the  present  case  answered  all 
letters  promptly  and  satisfactorily,  and  but  for  their  courtesy 
and  generosity  this  study  could  not  have  been  made. 

The  sketch  of  the  Women  Garment  Workers  is  based  up 
on  the  following  sources  of  information:  Mrs.  Mabel  Hurd  Wil- 
lett's,  Women  in  the  Clothing  Trade,  Columbia  University 
Studies,  vol.  16,  No.  3,  1903;  Twelfth  Census,Manufactures,3  and 
Employees  and  Wages;  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Sweated 
Trades  (House  of  Representatives,  52nd  Congress,  second  ses 
sion);  Hull  House  Maps  and  Papers,  personal  interviews  with 
Union  officials  and  recent  numbers  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  Cloth 
ing  Trade. 


TITLES    OF   ARTICLES   AND    BOOKS    PUBLISHED  BY   THE  CORPS  OF 

INSTRUCTION,  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS,  BETWEEN 

MAY   i,  1904,  AND  MAY  i,  1905. 

(The  number  in  parentheses  after  each  title  indicates  the  approximate  number  of 

words  in  the  article.) 
BACON,  C.  S.— 

"  The  Operative  Treatment  of  Eclampsia."    Jour.  Amer.  Medical  Assn., 

Chicago,  May  21,  1904,     (2500) 
"  Heart    Disease  as  an  Obstetric   Complication."     Jour.  Amer.  Medical 

Assn.,  43:10,  Chicago.     (3800) 

"  "  Vaginal   Cesarean    Section  as   a  Substitute  for  Induction  of  Labor   in 

Cases  of  Threatened  Eclampsia  orof  Bright's  Disease."       Amer.  Jour, 
of  Obstetrics,  50:488,  N.  Y.,  Oct.,  1904.      (2600) 
"  "  The  Duty  of  the  Medical  Profession  in  Relation  to  Criminal  Abortion." 

Illinois  State  Medical  Jour.,  Chicago,  Jan.,  1905.     (4600) 
"  Non-Operative  Treatment  of  Eclampsia."     Amer.  Jour,  of    Obstetrics, 

v.  51,  No.  4,  N.  Y.,  April,  1905. 
BAKER,  I.  O.— 

"  Joint  Fillers  for  Brick  Pavements."     Proceedings,  Illinois  Clay  Workers, 

Jan.  28,  1905,  Champaign,  111.     (2600) 
"Hard  Roads  in  Central  Illinois."       Breeders'  Gazette,  Chicago,    April 

27,  1905.     (1200) 
BALDWIN,  E.  C.— 

"  La   Bruyere's  Influence  upon  Addison."      Pub.  of  The  Modern  Lan 
guage  Assn.  of  America,  19:4,  Dec.,  1904.     (5000) 
"  The  Meeting  of  the  Central  Division  of  the  Modern  Language  Assn.  of 

America.''     The  Nation,  80:2063,  N.  Y,  Jan.  12,  1905.     (1540) 
BALLINGER,  J.  R. — 

"  Diagnosis  of  Influenza."     Medical  Recorder,  v.27,  No.  3,  Chicago,  March 

15,  1905.     (1000) 
BEVIER,  ISABEL — 

"One  Phase  of  the  New  Education."     Report  of  Illinois  Farmers'  Insti 
tute,  1904. 

"  The  House.      Its  Plan,  Decoration,  and  Care."      Pp.   150.      American 
School  of  Household  Economics,  Chicago. 

BURKHOLDER,  J.  F. — 

"  Anatomy  of  the  Brain  of  the  Sheep."     Pp.  174.     G.  P.  Engiehard  &  Co., 

Sept.  1904,  Chicago. 
BURRILL,  T.  J.— 

"  Micro-Organism  of  Soil  and  Human  Welfare."  Presidential  Address  of 

The  Amer.  Microscopical   Soc.,  1904,  Science,  N.  Y.,  New.  Ser.,  v.  26, 

No.  509,  pp.  426-434,  Sept.  30,  1904. 

•'  Ornamental  Views."     Proceedings  of  the  111.  Horticultural  Soc.,  1904. 
BYFORD,  HENRY  T.— 

"  Treatment  of  Gonorrhea;  a  Clinical  Study."      Amer.  Medicine,  Vol.  8, 

No.  5,  pp.  202-203,  July  3°.  r9°4-     (2coo) 
"  Comparison  of  the  Abdominal  and  Vaginal  Routes,  for  the  Removal  of 

Uterine  Fibroids."     Chicago  Medical  Recorder,  March,  1905.     (1600) 
"  Points  in  the  Technic  of  Aseptic  Operating."    Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assn., 

March  u,  1905.     (4000) 


72 

CARMAN,  A.  P. — 

"  A  War  Machine."    Physical  Review,  19:171-73,  Aug.,  1904,  N.  Y. 
CARPENTER,  F.  W. — 

"  The  Reactions  of  the  Pomace  Fly  (Drosophila  Ampelophila  Loew)  to 
Light,  Gravity,  and  Mechanical  Stimulation."  Amer.  Naturalist,  39:- 
459,  March  1905,  Boston.  (5000) 

ClGRAND,  B.  J. — 

"  History  of  American  Emblems."  Pp.  445.  Cameron  Amborg  &  Co., 
Chicago,  1904. 

"Life  of  Alexander    Hamilton."      Pp.224.     H.  G.  Campbell  Pub  Co., 

Milwaukee,  1904. 

"  "  Origin  and  Meaning  of  the  Seal  of  Chicago."     Pp.  200.    Chicago  City 

Council,  Chicago,  1005. 

"  The  Lower  Third  of  the  Face.1'      Pp.  167.     Blakely  Printing  Co.,  Chi 
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"  "The  Fall  of  Yorktown,"     Pp.  310.     Historic  Pub.  Co.,  Chicago,  1904. 

"  Meaning  of  Great  Seal  of  the  United  States."     Encyc.  Americana    Vol. 

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"  "  Triumphs  of  Centralized  Effort."     Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  5,  May, 

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"  Diet,  Dentures,  and  Disposition."  Dental  Digest,  V.  19.  No.  190,  Chi 
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"  The  Philosophy  of  Mastication."  Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  4,  Chi 
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"  Gold  for  Inlay  Work,"  Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  5,  Chicago,  May, 
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"  Methods  of  Teaching  the  Anatomical  Arrangements  of  Teeth."  Items 
of  Interest,  V.  26.  No.  9,  N.  Y,  Aug.,  1904.  (3800) 

"  Swaging  Methods  in  Inlays."  Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  6,  Chica 
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"  The  Improved  Gold  Inlay."  Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  7,  Chicago, 
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"Prosthetic  Ideals."  Amer,  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  8,  Chicago,  Aug., 
1904.  (2400). 

'Compound   Cavities;    Their   Inlays."      Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  9, 

Chicago,  Sept.,  1904.     (2600) 
"  "  Successes   Evolved   from   Failures."    Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  3,  No.   io> 

Chicago,  Oct.  1904.     (3600) 

"  "The   Oral   Cavity  as  an   Index  of   Disposition."    Amer.  Dental  Jour.  3, 

No.  11,  Chicago. 

"  Palatal  Disturbances  and  Their  Prosthetic  Correction."      Amer.  Dental 

Jour.,  V.  3,  No.  12,  Chicago,  Dec.,  1904.     (2900) 
"  "  Metallic  Film  Records  of  Dental  Conditions."      Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V. 

4,  No.  T(  Chicago,  Jan.,  1905.     (2200) 

"  "The  Ideal  Porcelain  Crown."     Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  V.  4,  No.  2,  Chicago, 

Feb.,  1902.     (2900) 

(5'4) 


78 

ClGRAND,    B.   J. — 

"The  Intra-Dental  Band  in  Bridge  Dentures."  A mer.  Dental  Jour.,  V. 
4,  Chicago,  No.  3.,  March,  1905.  (3100) 

"  Removable  Bridge  Dentures,"  Amer.  Dental  Jour..  V.  4,  No.  4,  Chi 
cago,  April,  1905.  (2300) 

"  Professional  Services  Compared."  Dental  Review,  V.  19,  No.  4,  Chi 
cago,  1905.  (3800) 

"  Higher  Fees  Will  Mean  Advance."  Pacific  Coast  Dental  Gazette,  V. 
13,  No.  3,  March,  1905.  (3700) 

"  Dental  History,  Its  Value  in  the  College  Curriculum."  Item?  of  Inter 
est,  V.  26,  No,  8,  N.  Y,  Aug.,  1904.  (600) 

"  Masticatory  Changes  Induced  by  Food."  Illinois  State  Dental  Society, 
40th  Annual  Report,  Chicago,  May  10,  1904. 

"  Higher  Educational  Requirements."  Tenth  Annual  Report  Dental 
Pedagogic  Society,  Buffalo,  June,  1904. 

"  The  Libraries  of  the  Future."  American  Library  Journal,  Chicago, 
March,  1905.  (300) 

"  Diets  and  Dentures."     Dental  Digest,  V.  10,  No.  6,  Chicago,  June,  1904. 

(3400) 
CLARK,  T.  A.— 

."  Some  Boys  Who  Worked  Their  Way  Through  College."     Chicago  Sun 
day  Tribune,  Chicago,  Aug.  28,  1904. 

"  Eugene  Field,  A  Biography."     C.  M.  Parker,  Taylorville,  111.,  Apr.,  1905 
COLVIN,  S.  S. — 

"The  Problem  of  Psychological  Determinism."  Jour,  of  Philosophy, 
Psychology  and  Scientific  Methods,  Lancaster,  Pa.,  Oct.  27,  1904.  (3000) 

''Is    Subjective    Idealism   a    Necessary    Point  of    View  for  Psychology  ?" 
Jour,  of  Philosophy,  Psychology,  and  Scientific  Method,  Lancaster, 
Pa.,  Apr.  27,  1905.     (3500) 
COOK,  G.  W.— 

"  A  Few  Important  Features  in  Teaching  Pathology  to  Dental  Students." 
Transactions  of  the  Institute  of  Dental  Pedagogy,  Louisville,  Ky. 
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"  Some  Pathological  Phases  of  Alveolar  Abscesses."  Dental  Review,  V. 
19,  No.  4,  Apr.,  1905.  (2200) 

"  The  Effect  of  Chemical  Agents  on  Bacteria  with  Relation  to  the  Saliva." 
Transactions  of  the  International  Dental  Congress,  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
Aug.,  1904.  (2700) 

"  Dental  Therapeutics."     Amer.  Dental  Jour.,  Chicago,  1904-05.     (1500) 
DEHN,  W.  M.- 

"  Primary  Arsines."     Amer.  Chem.  Jour.,  Baltimore,  Feb.,  1905.     (13000) 
"  "  Eine  Methode  zur  schnellen   Chlorbistiminung  im  Harn."      Zeitschrift 

fiir   Physiologische    Chemie,  V.  44,  No.  i.     Strassburg.     (1200) 
DEXTER,  E.  G.— 

"The  Best  College;  What  Is  It?"  Education,  24:10,  Boston,  June,  1904. 
(4000) 

(515) 


74 

DEXTER,  E.  G.— 

"  Appendicitis   and   the  Race."     Science,  N.  S.  20:496,  N.  Y,  July  i,  1904. 

(1000) 

"  Effects  of  the  Sun  Upon  the  Black  Race."     Scientific  Amer.,  91 :8,  N.  Y., 

Aug.  20,  1904.     (icoo) 
"  "The  Psychology  of  Advertising,"      Printer's  Ink,  48:3,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  24, 

1904.     (3000) 
"  Weather  Influences."     Pp.  XXX-f  I;86    Macmillan,  N.  Y.  and  London, 

Aug.,  1904. 

"  "  A  History  of  Education  in  the  United  States."  Pp.  XX-f -1657.    Macmil 

lan,  N.  Y.  and  London,  Sept.,  1904. 

"  The  Present  Status  and  Personnel  of  the  Secondary  Teaching  Force  in 
the  United  States.''      Year  Book,  Nat.  Soc.  for  the  Scientific  Study  of 
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"  Educational   Progress.      Social   Progress."      Baker  and  Taylor,  N.  Y., 

1903.     (6000) 
"  "  Age  and  Eminence."     Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  66:6,  N,  Y.,  Apr.,  1905.     (3000) 

DlETRICH,WlLLTAM — 

"  Market  Classes  and  Grades  of  Swine."      Pp.  46.     U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp. 

Staiion,  Bull.  No.  97. 
"  "The  Swine  Industry  from  the  Market  Standpoint."      Pp.- 8.     U.  of  1. 

Agric.  Exp.  Station,  Circular  No.  83. 
EARLE,  F.  B.— 

"  Semeiology  and  Diagnosis  of  Diseases  of  Children."     (Translated  from 
the  Russian,  with  additions.)     Pp.  472.  Cleveland  Press,  Chicago,  1004. 
EMMETT,  A.  D.,  AND  GRINDLEY,  H,  S. — 

•'  On  the  Presence  of  Cotton-seed  Oil  in  Lards  from  Hogs  Fed  upon  Cot 
ton-seed  Meal."  Jour.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  27:3,  Easton,  Pa.,  March, 

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ENO,  A.  L.— 

"  Scott's    Quentin  Durward"       Edited  with    Introduction    and  Notes. 

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FISCHKIN,  E.  A.— 

"  Instrumental  Treatment  of  Chronic  Urethritis."     Chicago  Med.  Record 
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FISK,  G.  M.— 

"  Commerce  and  Industry."     Review  of  State  Legislation,  1903.     N.  Y. 

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FORBES,  S.  A. — 

"  Executive  Report  of  the  Illinois  State  Entomologist,  including  a  re 
port  of  operations  under  the  horticultural  inspection  law."  Pp.  35. 
State  Entomologist,  Urbana,  Illinois,  1905. 

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the  N.  E.  A.,  Winona,  Minn.,  1904,    (7553) 


75 

FORBES,  S.  A. — 

"The  Kind  of  Economic  Entomology  which  the  Farmer  Ought  to  Know." 

Report  Illinois  Farmers'  Institutes,  Springfield,  111.,  1904.     (5182) 
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Agric.  Exp.  Station,  Bull.  No.  95,Urbana,  111.,  Nov.  1904 
"  "  Economic  and  Industrial  Aspects  of  Secondary  School  Biology,  School. 

Science,  and  Mathematics."     5:3.     Chicago,  March,  1905.     (4474) 
ERASER,  W.  J.- 

"  Clean  Milk."    U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station  Circular,  No.  78,  July,  1904. 

(800) 
"  "  Some  Problems  for  Breeders  and  their  Associations."     Holstein  Fries- 

ian  Assn.,  July,  1904.     ($000) 

•'  "  Crops  for  the  Silo.     Cost  of    Filling  and  Effect  of  Silage  on  the  Flavor 

of  Milk."   U.  of  I.  Agric.  Exp.  Station,  Bull.  No.  101,  April,  1905.  (8000) 
FULLER,  WILLIAM — 

•'  The  Treatment  of  Fractures  at  the  Angle  of  the  Lower  Jaw."    Amer. 

Jour,  of  Surgery  and  Gynecology,  May,  1904. 
GARNER,  J.  W.— 

"  Signed  Articles  in  the  Encyclopedia'Americana."    Americana  Co.,  1904- 

1905,  as  follows: 

"  "  Constitutional  Law."     (2000) 

"  "  Neutrality."     (1700) 

"  Petition  of  Right."     (300) 
"  "  Political  Science.'3     (3700) 

"  "  Protectorate."     (360) 

"  Reconstruction"  (in  U.  S.  History).     (5400) 
"  "  Right  of  Petition."     (650) 

"Territories."     (1309) 
"  Treaties."     (1240) 
"  "  Treaties,"  Indian.     (1000) 

"  "  Veto."     (1000) 

"  "  The  Northern  Securities  Case."    Annals  of   the  Amer.  Acad.  of   Pol. 

and  Soc.  Sci.,  20:!,  July,  1904.     (9000).     Reprint,  Gunton's  Mag.,  Aug. 
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"  •'  Four  Years  of  Anti-Trust  Activity."      N.   Amer.   Review,   179:3,    Sept., 

1904.  (6000) 

"  The  Merchant  Marine  Investigation."     N.  Amer.  Review,  180:3,  March, 

1905.  (6500) 

"  "  Federal  Activity  in  Relation  to  the  Public  Health."     Yale  Review,  May, 

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"  "  Record    of    Political    Events."       Pol.    Sci.    Quar.,    19:2,  June,    1904. 

(18000).     Ibid.,  19:4,  Dec.,  1904.     (17000) 
"  La  Vie  Politique  et  Parlementaire  dans  Les  Etats  Unis."      Revue  Poli- 

tique  et  Parlementaire,  41:123,  Sept.,  1904.  (5200).  Ibid.,  43:129,  March, 

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(517) 


76 

GREENE,  E.  B.— 

"The  Government  of  Illinois;  Its  History  and  Administration."       Pp.  n- 

296.     Macmillan,  N.  Y.,  1904. 
GREENE,  E.  B.,  AND  ALVORD.  C.  W. — 

"  Syllabus  of  Modern  European  History."     Pp.  32.     Students'  Coopera 
tive  Assn.,  Champaign,  111.,  1905. 
GRINDLEY,  H.  S.— 

"The  Nitrogenous  Constituents  of  Flesh."    Jour.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  26: 

1086,  Easton,  Pa.,  Sept.,  1904.     (5500)      See  Emmett,  A.  D. 
HALL,  L.  D.- 

"  Toughness  in  Beef."     Wallace's  Farmer,  30:10,  Ues  Moines,  la.,  March, 

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HARSHA,  W.  M.— 

"  The  Prevention  of  Appendicitis."  Address  before  the  Mississippi  Val 
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HOLLISTER,  H.  A.— 

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24:4,  Bloomington,  111.,  Dec.,  1904.     (2000) 
HOLMES,  BAYARD— 

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pleton,  N.  Y. 

"  Surgery  of  the  Head."     Pp.  569.    Appleton,  N.  Y. 
HOPPER,  H.  A.— 

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No.  76,  May,  ioo4. 
HUME,  A.  N.— 

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416,  Nov.,  1904. 
"  "  Treatment  of  Oats  for  Smut."     111.  Exp.  Station  Circular,  No.  89,  p.  1-3, 

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415.     Macmillan,  N.  Y.  and  London,  1904. 
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METTLER,  H.  L. — 

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April  23,  1904;  Part  2,  April  30,  1904,  N.  Y. 


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"  "  Syphilis  as  a  Cause  of  the  Neuroses."     Chic.  Med.  Recorder,  V.  25,  No. 

6,  Chicago,  May  15,  1904. 

"  "  Cerebral  Syphilis."      Ciinical  Review,  V.  20,  No.  3,  Chicago,  June,  1904. 

"  Multiple  Neuritis."     Clinical  Review,  Part  I,  V.  20,  No.  4,  July,   1904; 

Part  2,  V.  20,  No.  5,  Aug.,  1904,  Chicago. 
"  The   Differential    Diagnosis  between    Hysteria  and  Neurasthenia,  and 

Treatment."     Medical  Standard,  Chicago,  July,  1904. 

"  "  Polyneuritis  with  Report  of  a  Case."     Medicine,  Detroit,  July,  1004. 

"  "  Hemicrania."     Clinical  Review,  V.  20,  No.  6,  Chicago,  Sept.,  1904. 

"  The   Occupation   Neuroses."      Clinical  Review,  V.  21,  No.  i,  Chicago, 

Oct.,  1904. 

"  Caries  of  the  Vertebrae."    Clinical  Review,  V.  2l,  No.  2.  Nov.,  1904. 
"  Infantile  Hemiplegia."  Clinical  Review,  V.  21,  No.  3,  Chicago,Dec.,  1904 
"  Neurological  Pitfalls."     N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.,  N.  Y.,  Dec.,  24,  1904. 
"  Dementia  Paralytica."     Clinical  Review,  V.  21,  No.  4,   Chicago,  Jan., 

1905. 
"  "  Acute  Anteriac  Poliomyelitis."  Clinical  Review,  V.  21,  No.  5,  Feb.,  1905 

"  Cerebral  Abcess."     Clinical  Review,  V.  22,  No.  I,  Chicago,  April,  1905 
"  "  Case  of  Disseminated  Cerebrospinal  Sclerosis  with  a  Suggestive  Fam 

ily  History."    Chicago  Med.  Recorder,  V.  22,  No.  4,  Chicago,  April  15, 
1005. 
"  The  Traumatic  Neuroses  in  and  out  cf  Court."  N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.,  N.  Y., 

April  15,  3905. 

"  "  Tumors  of  the  Brain."  Clinical  Review,  V.  22,  No.  2,  Chicago,  May,  1905. 

MOORE,  L.  E.— 

"  The  Cole  Four-Cylinder  Balanced  Compound  Locomotive."  Railroad 
Gazette,  V.  37,  No.  25,  Dec.  2,  1904  (500);  V,  38,  No.  3,  Jan.  20,  1905, 
N.  Y.  (350) 

MUMFORD,  H.  W.  AND    HALL,  L.  D.— 

"  Present  Methods  of  Beef  Production."     Part  I,  U.  of  I.Agric.  Exp. Sta 
tion,  Circular  No.  79,  July,  1904.  (3500)      Part  2,  Ibid.,  Circular  No.  88, 
Mar.,  1905.     (2500)     Part  3,  Ibid.,  Circular  No.  91,  Apr.,  1905.     (2500) 
MUMFORD,  H.  W. — 

"Study   of   Animal   Husbandry."      School    News,  Taylorville,  111.,  Sept., 

1904.     (2600) 

"Swine  Feeding."     Ibid.,  Oct.,  1904.     (2600) 
"Horse  Feeding."     Ibid.,  Nov.,  1904.     (2600) 

"  "  Present  Methods  of  Beef  Production."     Ibid.,  Dec.,  1004.     (2600) 

"  "  Packing  House  By-Products."     Idid.,  Jan.,  1905.     (2600) 

"Amos  Cruickshank,  Short-Horn  Breeder."    Ibid.,  Feb.,  1905.     (2600) 
"  Feed  Lot  Observations."    Ibid.,  March,  1905.     (2600) 
"  Mutton  and  Wool."    Ibid.,  April,  1905.     (2600) 
"  "  Converting  Corn  into  Beef."     Ibid.t  May,  1905.     U6oo) 

(5IQ) 


78 

OCHSNER,  A.  J.— 

"  Clinical  Surgery."     Ed.  2,  pp.  747.     Cleveland  Press,  Chicago,  1904. 

"  Aseptical  Surgical  Technique."  Transactions  Amer.  Surgical  Assn.,  1904. 

"  Review  of  the  Histories  of  One  Thousand  Consecutive  Cases  of  Appen 
dicitis  Operated  on  at  the  Augustana  Hospital  During  the  Thirty- 
three  Months  from  July  i,  1901,  and  April  i,  1904."  Read  before  the 
Tri-State  Med.  Soc.  (Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Tennessee),  at  its  Annual 
Meeting  in  Chattanooga,  Oct.  14,  1904. 

OSCHNER,   A.   J, — 

"Hospital  Construction  in  American  Cities  and  Towns."  Clinical  Re 
view,  Chicago,  Nov.,  1904. 

"  "  The  Construction  of  Hospitals  for  the  Treatment  of  Contagious  Dis 

eases."  Ibid.,  Dec.,  1904. 

"  "  Hospitals  for  Smaller  Cities  and  Towns."    Ibid.,  Jan.,  1905. 

"  "  Hospital  Management."    Ibidn  March,  1905. 

PARR,  S.  W.— 

"  The  Coals  of  Illinois;  Their  Composition  and  Analysis."     Pp.  40.      The 

University  of   Illinois  Studies,  Vol.  i,  No.  7,  July,  1904. 
"  "  Some  Calorific  Tests  with  Standard  Materials."   Technograph,  1905. 

AND    MCCLURE,  C.  H.— 

"  The   Photometric   Determination  of   Sulphur   in   Coal."      Jour,  of  the 

American  Chemical  Society,  Sept.,  1904. 
PATTON,  J.  M. — 

"Medical    Clinic."      Chemical  Review,  V.  21,  No.  i,  Chicago,  Oct.,  1904. 

(2500) 

"  "Tricuspid  Obstruction."    Ibid.,  V.  7,  No.  6,  March,  1905,  (3000);  Reprint. 

111.  Med.  Jour.,  V.  7,  No.  4,  April,  1905. 

PETERS,  A.  W. — 

"  Phosphorescena   in   Ctenophores."      Jour,   of   Experimental  Zool.,  2:1, 

Baltimore,  April,  1905.     (5000) 
"  "  Abstract  of  the  Sequence  of  Organisms  in  a  Protozoan  Culture  and  Its 

Irreversibility."     Science,  V.  21,  N.  Y.     (220) 
QUINE,  W.  E.— 

•'  Limits  of   the  Power  of  the  Physician  Contrasted  with  that  of  the  Sur 
geon.'     111.  Med.  Jour.,  May,  1904. 
RIETZ,  H.  L.— 

"On  Groups  in  which  Certain  Commutative   Operations  are  Conjugate." 

Transactions  of  the  Amer.  Math.  Soc.,  V.  5,  N.  Y.,  Oct.,  1904.   (3600) 
SMITH,  FRANK — 

"An  Unusual  Flight  of  Sparrow-Hawks  in   Michigan  in  1904."     Bull,  of 

the  Mich.  Ornithological  Club,  V.  5,  Detroit,  Dec.,  1904.   (550) 
"The   Chief  Aims  in  Zoology  Work  in  High  Schools."     School  Sci.  and 

Math.,  Chicago,  May,  1905,     (2800) 
STEBBINS,  JOEL — 

"The  Leonids  of  1904."  Popular  Astronomy,  13:1,  Northfield,  Minn., 
Jan.,  1905.  (700) 

(520) 


79 

STEBBINS,  JOEL — 

"  "Personal  Scale."     Publications  Astron.  Soc.  of  the  Pacific,  17:101,  San 

Francisco,  April,  1905.     (700) 
TALBOT,  A.  N.— 

"  Tests  of  Reinforced  Concrete  Beams."  Proceedings  Amer.  Soc.  for 
Testing  Materials,  V.  4, 1904.  (9000)  Reprint,  Engineering  News,  Aug. 
n,  1904,  and  Engineering  Record,  Aug.  13,  1904, 

"  Flexure  of  Reinforced  Concrete   Beams."    Jour.  West.    Soc.   of    Engi 
neers,  Aug.,  1904.    (12000) 
"  "  Tests  of  Reinforced  Concrete   Beams."     U.  of   I.  Eng'g  Exp.   Station, 

Bull.  No.  i,  Sept.  I,  1904.     [25000) 

"  The  Extension  of   Engineering   Investigational  Work  by  Engineering 
Schools."     Proceedings  of  the  Soc.  for  the   Promotion  of  Eng'g  Ed  uc. 
¥.12,1904. 
"  Paving   Brick,  Testing    and     Inspection."     Clay  Worker,  Feb.,  1905; 

Municipal  Engineering,  March,  1905.  (3000) 
WOOD,  C.  A.,  AND  WOODRUFF,  T.  A.— 

"  The  Commoner  Diseases  of  the  Eye."  Ed.  2.  pp.  409.  Englehard  & 
Co.,  Chicago,  1904. 

"  AND    BULLER,  FRANK — 

•'  Poisoning  by  Wood  Alcohol  and  Other  Methylated  Preparations."  Jour. 

Amer.  Med.  Assn.,  July,  2-30,  1904. 
"  Poisoning  by  Wood  or  Methyl  Alcohol,  and  Its  Preparations,  as  a  Cause 

of  Death  and   Blindness."    A  supplementary   report.    Jour.    Amer. 

Med.  Assn.,  V.  81,  No.  i,  Jan.  7,  1905. 


[END  OF  VOLUME  ONE.] 


(521) 


INDEX  TO  VOLUME  ONE 


(The  references  are  to  numbers  at  foot  of  page) 


Adams,  C.  F,  jr.,  (quoted),  350-1 

Ag-assiz,   Louis,    Interview   with   Lincoln,  33-4. 

Algebra,   in  Illinois  hig-h  schools,  83-6. 

Arithmetic,  in  Illinois  hig-h  schools,  88. 

Astronomy,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  107,  111. 

Bagley,  Sarah,  446. 

Bakery  and  confectionery  workers'  union,  wom 
en  in,  494. 

Bastwick,  Susannah,  petition  to  Parliament- 
1640-41,  141,  147. 

Beef,  dig-estion  of,  185-202;  air  dried,  Jessen's  ex- 
periment,187-9;  raw  and  boiled,  effect  of  for 
malin  on,  193;  R.  H.  Chittenden  and  G.  W. 
Cummins'  experiment,  189-90. 

Biography,  criticised  by  Lincoln,  7. 

Biology,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  110. 

Bixby,  Lincoln's  letter  to  Mrs.,  (quoted)  35  6. 

Bloomington  (111.),  Lincoln's  lost  speech,  criti 
cised,  45-6. 

Bonser,  F.  G,,  Statistical  Study  of  Illinois  High 
Schools,  79-129. 

Bookbinders'  International  Brotherhood,  wom 
en  in,  466-9. 

Bookkeeping,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  84,  88-9, 
126. 

Boot  and  shoe  workers'  union,  women  in,  449-57. 

Botany,  in  Illinois  bigh  schools,  109. 

Browning,  Robert,  Lincoln's  fondness  for,  14-5. 

Building  employees'  Union,  women  in,  494-5. 

Burns,  Robert,  Lincoln's  reading  from,  10-12. 

Canals,  in  Illinois  in  1834-5,  216. 

Champaign,( 111.,)  Lincoln's  visit  to  in  1854, 11-12. 

Charles  I.  King  of  England  Grand  Remon 
strance  front  Parliament  to,  139-81. 

Chemistry,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  108. 

Chicago  and  Galena  Union  railroad,  217. 

Chicago  Grange,  338. 

Chicago  Teachers'  Federation,  498-9. 

Cigar  Makers'  International  Union,  women  in, 
488-91. 

Civil  War,  and  the  Grange  movement,  335-6; 
effect  on  commerce  of  New  York,  64-5. 

Civics,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  98-9,  126. 

Clay,  Henry,  Lincoln  on,  44. 

Coal,  bituminous  analyzed,  295-7;  calorific 
values  of,  314-18;  carbon  of,  302-9 ;comparison 
of  different  kinds,  299-300;  hydrogen  of,  300-2; 
lignitic  or  brown,  analyzed,  297-300;  pro 
ducts  of  decomposition  of,  291-2  semi-bitu 
minous  analyzed,  292-5;  sulphur  of,  309-14; 
photometric  table  for,  313;  volatile  combust 
ible  of,  300-2;  water  of  composition  of,  300-2. 


Coals  (The)  of  Illinois,  their  composition  and 
analysis,  S.  W.  Parr,  289-328. 

Coles,  Edward,  governor  of  Illinois,  215. 

Commerce,  of  New  York,  Morgan.  R.  P.,  59-76; 
history  of,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  116-7. 

Commercial  geography  and  law,  in  Illinois 
high  schools,  115. 

Consumers'  League,  480. 

Cooking,  influence  of  on  digestion  of  meats, 
198-202. 

Corn,  produced  in  Illinois  in  1871-73,  343-4;  pro 
ducing  area,  change  in,  66-7,  70. 

Cunningham,  J.  O  ,  (quoted)  30,  41,45. 

Cummins,  G.  W.,  and  Chittenden,  R.  H., 
(quoted),  189-90. 

Dickerson,  O.  M.,  Illinois  Constitutional  Con 
vention  of  1862,  385-442. 

Differential  rates,  disadvantage  to  New  York, 
71-2. 

Digby,  Lord,  (quoted)  142-3. 

Digestibility,  defined,  187;  of  meats,  189-90;  of, 
raw  and  cooked  blue  fish,  190. 

Digestion,  checked  by  formalin,  193-4;  effect  of 
lowering  temperature  on,  191-3;  of  beef  by, 
hydrochloric  acid  without  pepsin,  195;  of- 
meats,  artificial  method,  185-202;  rapidity  of, 
198-202. 

Dodge,  D.  K.,  Abraham  Lincoln:  The  Evolu 
tion  of  His  Literary  Style,  1-58. 

Douglas,  S.  A.,  and  Illinois  Central  railroad, 
221-2;  quoted  by  Lincoln,  46. 

Drawing,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  115  6 

Economics,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  103. 

Education,  principles  of,  in  Illinois  high 
schools,  117. 

Elocution,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  116. 

Emancipation  proclamation,  50. 

England.    Se  5  GREAT  BRITAIN. 

English  composition  and  literature,  in  Illinois 
high  schools,  93-5. 

Erie  canal,  61. 

Everett,  Edward,  appreciation  of  Lincoln's  Get 
tysburg  address,  52;  Lincoln's  opinion  of,10. 

Faculty,  publications  of,  see  UNIVERSITY. 

Farmers'  Alliance,  381. 

Farmers'  Club,  in  Illinois  legislature,  1871,  353. 

Farmers'  Mutual  benefit  association,  381, 

"Farmers'  Ring"  in  Illinois  legislature,  352-3. 

Fiennes,  John,  163;  on  remonstrance  on  state  of 
church,  164-6;  (quoted)  1656. 

Finch,  Lord  John,  148. 

Fish,  digestibility  of  raw  and  cooked  blue,  190. 


[523] 


Foods,  digestibility  of,  defined,  187. 

Formalin,  experiments  with,  in  digestion,  193-8. 

French  language,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  96. 

Geometry,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  86-9. 

German  language,  in  Illinois  high  schools, 95-6. 

Gettysburg  address,  Lincoln's,  50-3. 

Glove  Makers'  Union,  women  in,  484-8, 

Gordon,  J.  H.,  Illinois  railway  legislation  and 
commission  control  since  1870,  227-290. 

Grammar,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  90. 

Grand  remonstrance  to  Charles  I.,  King  of  Eng 
land,  Schoolcraft,  H.  L.,  139-81. 

Grange,  bibliography,  383-5;  bulletins  of,  339- 
l  40,  378;  causes  of  decline  of,  340;  conflicts 
I  with  the  railroads,  347-69;  degrees  nd  ritu 
al  of,  337;  discontent  with,  341-2,  346;  estab 
lish  me  nt  of,  337-9;  estimate  of,  381-2;  frater 
nal, social  and  educational  features  of,  377-80; 
history  of,  335-42;  in  politics,  364-9;  salaries 
of  officers  of,  341-2.  See  also  GRANGER 
MOVEMENT  IN  ILLINOIS. 

"Granger  Laws."    See  GRANGE. 

Granger  Movement  in  Illinois,  Paine,  A.  E., 
335-85. 

Great  Britain,  Army  plot  (1641),  151-2;  flight  of 
leaders,  153.  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS:  bill  to 
prevent  dissolution  of  Parliament,  153;  com 
mittee  of,  124,  143,  163-4;  remonstrance  146, 
159;  London  petition  referred  to,  149;  mem 
bers  of,  143;  powers  of,  145;  committee  to 
investigate  condition  of  Catbolics,  144-6; 
control  of  army,  140;  Episcopal  church  ser 
vice,  139-40, 170-1;  Irish  affairs,  1640,  143-4; 
London  petition  against  Episcopacy,  149, 
165;  rebellion  in  Ireland,  178-9.  PARLIAMENT, 
1640:  bill  for  annual  meetings,  148,  165;  for 
triennial  meetings,  148,  150.  The  Long: 
King's  speech  at  opening,  140;  disbanding 
of  Scotch  and  English  armies,  155-6,  160; 
measures  against  a  Citholic  plot,  174;  poll 
tax  voted,  157-8,  176-7;  remonstrance  pre 
sented  to  the  House  of  Commons  (analysis), 
175-6;  Sunday  session,  160.  WOMEN'S  UNIONS 
IN,  501-7. 

Great  Lakes,  ship  canal  to  Atlantic  Ocean,  63, 
75. 

Greek,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  97. 

Grindley,  H.  S.,  and  Mojonnier,  T.,  Artificial 
Method  of  determing  the  ease  and  rapidity 
of  digestion  of  meats,  183-202. 

Hammond,  M.  B.,  Railway  legislation  in  Illi 
nois  before  1870,  213-26. 

Herron,  Belva  Mary,  Progress  of  labor  organ 
ization  among  women,  together  with  some 
considerations  concerning  their  place  in 
industry,  443-512. 

History,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  97-9,  100-3,  115, 
125. 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  Lincoln's  reading  of,  13,  15. 

Illinois,  canals  built,  1834-35,  216;    coals  of,   see 


COALS;  constitutions  of  1848  and  1870  on 
railways,  223,  232, 268,352;  constitutional  con 
vention  of  1879,  229,  231-2;  general  assembly 
27;  internal  improvements,  1837-49;  217-9, 
221-2;  Central  railway,  1851-1902,  217,  221-3. 
243,  261-3,  269-71. 

Illinois  Constitutional  Convention  of  1862, 
Dickerson,  O.  M.,  385-442;  bibliography,  441- 
2;  calling  of,  387-93;  compared  with  those  of 
1848  and  1870,  414-6;  democratic  leaders  in, 
392-3;  proceedings  of ,  393-410;  proposed  con 
gressional  apportionment  in,  440;  proposed 
senatorial  apportionment  in,  437;  rejected 
constitution  discussed,  410-6;  republican 
leaders  in,  393;  votes  cast  on  constitution 
and  map.  408438;,  votes  011  negro  question, 
439. 

Illinois  Railwaj^  and  Warehouse  Commission, 
213-5,  237  8,  251-2,  256-8,  261,  279-87,  240-2,  254, 
356,  362-3;  compared  with  New  England 
commissions,  253-5. 

Illinois  Railway  Legislation  and  Commission 
Control  since  1870,  Gordon,  J.  H.,  227-89. 

Illinois  railways,  and  act  of  1849,  220;  attitude 
of  towards  laws  of  1871,  239-40;  Central  rail 
road,  217,  221-3,243,  261-3,  269-71;  charter  re 
stricted,  217;  charters  refused  to  railways 
with  terminals  outside  the  state,  1848-54,  220; 
Chicago  and  Galena  Union  railway,  217; 
gross  earnings  of,  237,  239;  business  done 
and  cost  of  operation,  237,  239,  241,  258-60; 
rates  charged,  237,  239,  241,258-60;  conflict 
with  the  grange,  213-4,  231,  248,  347-69;  from 
1870-1904,  272-8;  early  charters,  217,  219-20; 
electric,  277-8;  Illinois  vs.  Illinois  Central 
railway  company,  269-71;  Lake  front  law, 
1870,  230,  269-71;  mileage  at  various  dates, 
219,221,227,242,^72,  277;  Northern  Cross 
railroad,  1838,  218-9;  pooling,  266-7;  ^ight  to 
submerged  land  of  Lake  Michigan,  230, 
269-71;  and  farmers,  336  347-57;  state  owner 
ship,  213-4,  217-9;  commission,  213,  215.  237-8, 
251-3,  256-8  261,  279-87;  tax-grabbing  law  of 
1870,  230,  267-71;  test  cases,  214,  243-4,  262, 
354. 

Immortality,  Lincoln's  favorite  poem,  13-4. 

Interstate  commerce  commission,  256-7,  236-7, 
382. 

Ireland,  discussed  in  House  of  Commons,  1640, 
143-4. 

lessen,  Ernest,  on  digestibility  of  meats.  187-8. 

Knights  of  Labor,  447, 

Kelley,  O.  H.,  founder  of  the  Grange,  330-9. 

Label  League,  women  in,  499-500. 

Labor  Organization  Among  Women,  443-512. 

Ladies,  of  St.  Crispin,  447;  Garment  Workers, 
Union,  women  in,  475-81. 

Languages,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  91,  95,  124. 

Latin,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  95. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  charges  against,  147-8,  150. 


[524] 


Leslie,  J.  M.,  author  of  The  Phantom, a  favorite 
poem  of  Lincoln's,  12-3. 

Lignitic  or  brown  coal.    See  COAL  . 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  appreciation  of  humorous 
writers,  16-7;  autobiography  (quoted),  4-5; 
Cooper  Institute  speech,  46;  early  poems^ 
37-9;  education  of,  4-6;  evolution  of  his  liter 
ary  style,  Dodg-e,D.K.,  1-58;  first  and  second 
inaugurals  of,  47-8,  53:  interest  in  words, 
31-4;  knowledg-e of  Shakspere,  19-25;  lectures 
criticised,  39-40;  letters  criticised,  35-6;  list 
of  quotations  used  in  his  speeches  55-6;  mes 
sages  to  Congress,  27,  48-9;  lost  speech 
(Blooming-ton,  111.),  45-6;  quotations  from 
the  Bible  by,  9;  observation  of  nature,  29-30; 
orig-in  of  his  stories,  34-5;  Peoria(Ill. )  speech, 
44-5;  reading-  of  fiction,  6-8;  his  study  of 
Euclid  and  Latin,  5,  33;  style  of  proclam- 
mations,  49-50;  debates  with  S.  A.  Doug-las, 
44-5;  temperance  address,  43-4. 

Liverpool  and  Manchester  railroad,  62. 

Long- Parliament.  See  GREAT  BRITAIN,  Parlia 
ment,  Long-. 

Long-fellow,  H.  W.,  Lincoln's  reading-  of,  9,  15-6. 

Lost  speech,  Lincoln's  Blooming-ton  ( 111.),  9, 45-6. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  Lincoln's  quotation  of,  15. 

McNeill,  Geo.,  (quoted),  446. 

Manual  training-,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  116-7. 

Mathematics,  in  Illinois  hig-h  schools,  82-9,  123. 

Meat,  Cutters  and  Butcher  Workers'  Union, 
women  in,  496-8;  digestibility  of,  185-202; 
Chittenden  and  Cummins'  experiments, 
189-90. 

Mississippi  Valley,  effect  of  a  ship  canal  be 
tween  Great  Lakes  and  Atlantic,  62-6,  74-5. 

Mojonnier,Timothy  and  Grindley,  H.  S.,  Arti 
ficial  method  for  determining-  the  ease  and 
rapidity  of  digestion  of  meats,  185-202. 

Morgan,  R.  P.,  Decline  of  the  commerce  of  the 
port  of  New  York,  61-76. 

Mule  Spinners'  Union,  483. 

Music,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  117. 

Mythology,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  117. 

Naseb3r  letters,  16. 

New  York, commerce  at  port  of, 61 -76;  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  1900  report  on,  69; 
decline  of,  61-76;  differential  rates  and,  71-2; 
effect  of  the  Civil  War  on,  64-5;  Erie  Canal 
and,  68;  railroads  and,  62-3,  75-7;  terminal 
charge  and,  70-1;  effect  of  ship  canal  con 
necting  Great  Lakes  with  Atlantic  Ocean 
on,  63-75. 

Niagara  Falls,  Lincoln's  description  of,  30-1. 

Paine,  A.  E.,  Granger  Movement  in  Illinois, 
335-85. 

Palmer,  J.  M.,  (quote  1 ),  233-4. 

Parr,  S  W., Coals  of  Illinois;  their  composition 
and  analysis.  289-328. 

Parliament.     See  GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Patrons  of  husbandry.     See  GRANGE. 


Pepsin,  in  artificial  digestion,  186-201. 

Physical  culture,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  117. 

Physics,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  104,  107-8. 

Physiography,  ii  Illinois  high  schools,  111. 

Physiology,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  110. 

Political  Science,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  98, 
126. 

Potter's  Union,  women  in,  491-2. 

Prairie  Farmer,  (quoted),  364-5,  366,368-9,  376. 

Printing  trade,  women  in,  458ff. 

Proteids,  digestibility  of,  188-9. 

Psychology,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  112. 

Pym,  John,  157, 158,  163-4, 169. 

Rail  and  lake  transportation  compared,  64.  66, 
69. 

Railroads,  effect  on  commerce  of  U.  S.,  62-3, 
75-6;  in  Illinois,  See  ILLINOIS  RAILWAYS. 

Railway  legislation  in  Illinois  before  1870, 
Hammond,  M.  B.,  213-26. 

Reynolds,  John,  216. 

Rhetoric,  in  Illinois  high  schools  91,93-4. 

St.  Louis,  relation  to  New  York  Commerce,  65. 

Schoolcraft,  H.  L.,  Genesis  of  the  Grand  Re 
monstrance  from  Parliament  to  King 
Charles  I.,  139-81. 

Sciences,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  103-12,  126-7. 

Scotland,  address  of  Charles  I  in,  172, 

Seward,  W.  H.,  and  Lincoln's  first  inaugural 
address,  47-8. 

Shirt,  waist  and  laundry  workers'  union,  wom 
en  in,  492-4. 

Smith,  S.  M.,  (quoted),  345. 

Spanish,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  97. 

Spelling,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  116. 

St;  Crispin,  Ladies  of,  447. 

Statistical  study  of  Illinois  high  schools,  Bon- 
ser,  F.  G.,  79-135. 

Stenography,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  118 

Straff ord,  Thomas,  Earl  of,  arrest  of,  144,  150-1, 
153. 

Sweating  system  of  women  garment  workers, 
470ff. 

Swedish,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  97. 

Teachers,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  118-9;  Feder 
ation  of  Chicago,  498-9. 

Telegraphers'  Union,  women  in,  492. 

Trigonometry,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  87. 

Typographical  Union,  women  in,  457,  446;  wom 
en's  auxiliary  in,  466. 

Typewriting,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  118. 

University  of  Illinois,  high  schools  accredited 
to,  79;  publications  of  faculty  of,  130-5,  203-8, 
329-32,513-21. 

United  Garment  workers'  union,  women  in,  469, 
475. 

United  textile  workers'  union,  women   in,  481. 

Vane,  Sir  Henry  jr.,  164,  166-7. 

Ward,  Montgomery  &  Co.,  374. 

Wages  of  women,  458,  462,  467,  476,  477,  486,  489. 


[525] 


Webster,  Daniel,  influence  on  Lincoln's  speech 
es,  10,  43,  48,  52-3. 

Wheat  and  corn  in  Illinois,  1871-3,  343-4. 

Wheat  producing-  area,  change  in,  66-7,  70. 

Willett,  Mrs.  M.  H.,  (quoted),  32,  470,471,  474. 

Women,  in  labor  organizations,  443-512;  in  early 
labor  movement,  445-8;  in  boot  and  shoe 
workers' union,  449-56;  condition  of  in  boot 
and  shoe  workers'  union,  456-7;  in  typo 
graphical  union,  457,  466;  in  printing  trade, 
458ff.;  auxiliary  of  typographical  union,  466; 
in  international  book  binders'  brotherhood, 
466-9;  wages  of,  458,  462,467,  476,  477,  486,  489; 
in  united  garment  workers'  union,  469,  475; 


in  united  textile  workers'  union,  481;  in 
glove  workers'  union,  484-8;  in  cigar  mak 
ers'  union,  488-91;  in  potters'  union,  491-2: 
in  telegraphers'  union,  492:  in  shirt,  waist 
and  laundry  workers'  union,  492-4;  in  ba 
kery  and  confectionery  workers'  union,  494; 
in  union  of  building  employees,  494-5;  in 
meat  cutters  and  butcher  workers'  union, 
496-8;  in  Union  label  league,  499-500;  in 
trade  union  league,  500-01;  unions  in  Great 
Britain,  501-7:  in  protective  and  provident 
league,  503;  in  labor  organizations,  gen« 
eral  conditions  affecting,  507-11. 
Zoology,  in  Illinois  high  schools,  109. 


[526] 


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